Alice Now and Then
by Amplesound
Summary: When Alice and a friend, (A past relative unbeknownst to either of them) find themselves in 1757 in lives they swear aren't theirs with people they swear they don't know; time deals an awkward hand and the two set off on an adventure to find what exactly happened to them and why Alice was recognised by the father of a dead man.
1. Chapter 1

**So here we are again. Much sooner than I anticipated with a far more complex story. I'm ahead of the game in this one, I've written the following chapters already. Constantly editing. I've done a bit of a mix and mash here so this is loosely based on book and movie. I was planning on not putting this up for a while because I was up to my nostrils in other kak but I couldn't resist.  
Ratings may go up...they might not. Depending on how brave I feel. Language ahead, because modern people, modern language.**

 **You've been warned, we're off.**

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"This sucks on so many levels..." Marie groaned despairingly before letting her face fall flat on her open history books.

Alice was re-reading a classic English tale for own studies. She would major in English.

"Get your face off of the book, you'll ruin the spine," she said sternly, reaching for its cover to edge it out from under Marie's face tentatively.

But Marie was unmoving, even pressing her face harder into the pages as if to physically absorb the information at which point Alice gave up and slumped back in her chair. Marie was incorrigible at the best of times but also her very best friend. She had been for the past 8 years having met in high school when Alice moved over to New York when she was 14. Marie had moved over around about the same time.

She was quiet and conservative in a loud and disquieting new school. Marie, a bushy haired, dark skinned girl, had latched onto her like a leech. Alice had initially been annoyed and confused by it but as time wore on, Marie became her anchor. Here, in Albany, they were studying together, on their way to greener pastures; notably New York. The dream for many others other than themselves. Marie was struggling to find the road though. Taking pleasure in seeing the bent pages and turned corners of her used and abused history books. A history buff, though she was, she found the course tough, Alice could quite plainly see.

"Marie?"

"Hmm?" Marie answered without looking up.

"You'll ruin the book with your face."

"Vengeance is sweet."

"You'll ruin your face with the book, too," Alice quipped but Marie was just as fast.

"I don't mind taking one for the team."

Alice sighed.

"Alright, fine," she put her book down and flicked the top of Marie's head, "Let's do something else. Perhaps all you need is a break."

Marie jumped at the chance, head shooting up, eyes bright,

"I love it. Let's go and get coffee and maybe not come back."

Marie was up and out of her seat, leaving her books behind before Alice had half the chance to pack up her backpack. She smiled at Marie's back, well aware that were Marie truly intent on not coming back, her books wouldn't have stayed where they were.

"So where are we going?" she asked Marie once having caught up.

"To get coffee." Marie threw her a sideways glance without pausing. Alice rolled her eyes,

"Yes, but where, dear? The cafeteria or..." Alice couldn't finish, Marie's wit demanded attention.

"No, the moon. Don't be dull."

Alice clicked her tongue irritably,

"…or the Starbucks off campus. But fine, the cafeteria it is."

Marie didn't respond. They walked in silence across the university fields to where the cafeteria stood on the other side; a beacon of hope for the broken of mind and intellect when exam time became too much. Their own exams were coming up faster than winter.

The interior was sickeningly white and chemically clean but there was a buzzing student atmosphere that gave it a bit of life. They got their respective drinks and took a seat by a window to look out at the main building. It was old and timely, the grandfather of the modern architecture that surrounded it.

They sat in relative silence until a small clink came when Marie leaned forward. When Alice sort out the source of the sound, she realised it came from a little trinket Marie had about her neck. It was a little clock on an axis, easily spun. With each clink against Marie's mug, it turned half an inch.

"What's that?" Alice asked, reaching for it.

Marie glanced down,

"Mom brought it back from Bolivia when she went last year. I've only recently started wearing it though."

"It's cool," Alice chided, playing with it between her fingers, "Why does it spin?"

Marie shrugged,

"Apparently it's for time travel. She found it in this really quirky shop she'd said I'd like. Unfortunately she couldn't bring me the shop," she smiled dryly, "So she brought me a souvenir instead."

"Have you tried it?" Alice's question surprised even herself. Normally it was Marie who came up with peculiar ideas, peculiar if not completely absurd and doomed to fail.

"Sure..." Marie frowned briefly before going with it, "Pick a time."

"1765."

"What?" Marie was confused, "Why?"

"No history book has written about that period extensively."

"They have so," Marie countered, "Just wasn't that interesting..."

"I'm sure it was well interesting. Let's go!"

"You're insane..."

"Let's go!"

She laughed excitedly. The Idea felt so real to them both that the discussion felt as if it were a serious one and that all things needed to be considered carefully before anything was tried. Marie shrugged,

"Alright," she puzzled over her trinket before shrugging, "Here's to winging it."

She spun it seventeen times, then counted to fifty-two on a whim, shrugging while she did.

Alice was leaning forward in anticipation. Of what was unbeknownst to her but she felt like a child. A throwback to a childhood in the back garden of a farm-y home in Bromsgrove, forty-five minutes out of Birmingham in the West Midlands.

The fields were big and green, haunted, she swore, by war veterans. Anything could have happened then. As Marie watched the tiny clock spin, Alice felt like anything could happen then too.

She couldn't help the feeling of disappointment as it welled up and settled sadly in the pit of her stomach when nothing came of the spinning clock. Marie looked just as put out, if not more as she voiced Alice's feelings towards their failure,

"This sucks on just as many levels as studying does. I genuinely felt like this was a thing," she looked up at Alice with a disbelieving smile.

"Same," Alice answered dully before sitting back and taking in a sharp breath, "How badly do we need to escape to have believed that stupid thing to work?"

"How dare you! It's not stupid," Marie defended, cradling her trinket gently in her palms before tucking it back into her top, "But yeah...pretty badly I guess."

Alice held up her hands in apology,

"We should get back."

Marie sighed, getting up lazily,

"Whatever Trevor."

Alice stood up to follow but not long after she did, she felt like her innards were falling out. Her soul drifted from her and was replaced by an empty chasm.

"Marie?" she wheezed worriedly as the air was sucked from her body.

Marie turned. She was pale, fearful, clutching her chest.

The university building and even the apparent structure of the world was beginning to crumble. They couldn't move. Stunned into paralysis as things fell apart.

Alice couldn't breathe, reaching out to Marie for help but Marie appeared to be fading. Then suddenly, in a final surge of energy and will to exist, Marie's form solidified briefly, her voice like an echo in the fray,

"Alice! Look..." Then it faded, _she_ faded and darkness encompassed them. Alice looked up to see the last of the present world crumbling down, crushing her.

8888888

A life time later, Alice was being shaken awake. She refused to open her eyes, feeling like the sense of a deep, comforting sleep was wearing off. But memory made itself known; the fading, the peculiar and sudden decay of the world, Marie's slow but sure cease of existence. And what of her own?

Her eyes flew open and she jolted upright,

"Oh my God!"

Marie's fearful face, warped with panic, recoiled instantaneously. She scrambled away from Alice, pressing herself against the wall,

"Jesus Christ!" she uttered in bewilderment, strangely soft given the circumstances.

Alice was still regaining her sense of self,

"Marie!" she gasped, "You were gone!"

Marie didn't react. She was still shocked, but relief was making itself known in the finer lines of her face.

"Marie?" Alice ventured, trying to calm herself, "Are you alright?"

Marie went from relieved to startled, eyes wide and eyebrows arched,

"Me? What? Are you?"

"Yes, I'm- what?" Alice was confused. So was Marie. She was frowning again, looking Alice over sceptically,

"I thought I saw you die..." Marie muttered softly, "The building fell down but everything went black before I could see what happened... I thought you'd, well, ended…"

Alice took a moment to remember. But it was there, in her head. The grey skeleton of the university building falling down.

"I..I remember. I'm fine, though," she reassured her friend, "Honest,"

"Hmm…" Marie cocked her head, reluctant to move, as if worried that moving might cause another catastrophic lapse of whatever had happened, "Good...I guess."

Alice made to get up but Marie moved suddenly, grabbing her wrist and holding her down. Alice, in her shock, swayed off balance and fell back down in a heap. Marie, however, had no sympathy. Instead she looked deadly serious, her eyes boring into Alice's, willing her to understand the depths of what she was about to be told,

"It worked," was all she said.

It took Alice a moment to realise what she was talking about. The spinning clock around Marie's neck. Impossible.

"How?" she asked sceptically.

Marie shrugged,

"I don't know! Time is as abstract as the art in the Goddamn Tate Modern. The concept is impossible from sooo many angles and yet..." She pointed to small window just to their left. Light was streaming through but was impaired by the dust and the grime that lined the glass. Wherever they were, it had been conveniently abandoned.

Alice crawled over to it and rose gently to her haunches to peer through the stained glass out into the world. She gasped.

"Here we are," she heard Marie finish off in awe.

Outside, the world had changed. Roads were replaced by well-trodden dirt paths. Cars were carriages, wheels were horses. Ladies in high shoes, hats and petticoats floated from here to there elegantly while men strode past or perhaps arm in arm with such ladies whilst clad in fine top hats and tail coats.

Of course those were the upper class; other men and women strode more firmly across the land in clothes withered and worn. They were stronger people, hardier it seemed with hair awry and tattered hems followed by hens, pigs or children alike.

Then there were soldiers; dashing men in brilliant uniforms with shouldered muskets and gunpowder at their waste. A longsword hung gallantly at many of their hips.

And Indians.

They were a mesmerising sight for Alice. Tall for the most part, agile people but with a fierce charisma. Tomahawks were at their hips too, easily accessible. Traders, Alice concluded for they carried fine cloths and jewellery and it seemed they knew who to look for. Who they were looking for often seemed to be expecting them or otherwise weren't surprised.

It was not an easy interaction. Alice could see the tension between the traders. It was a practiced exchange but neither body wanted anything to do with the other. Then it was over and the Indians, with their tomahawks, mohawks and exceeding grace, glided off into the abyss. The wilderness, if Alice squinted, wasn't far off.

She sank back down, drawing her knees up to her chest, trying desperately not to hyperventilate.

"Oh my God!" she whispered, "Oh my God!"

Marie didn't say anything. She just stared at Alice in her own bubble of terror.

"Oh my God," Alice repeated before putting her head in her hands, closing her eyes and trying to explain their situation. No such luck. When she opened her eyes nothing had changed and Marie was still gazing at her expectantly.

"What?" Alice asked sharply, "Why are you staring at me?! Are you waiting for me to have answers?"

Marie frowned,

"Calm down, drama llama, I'm thinking," she paused, taking a breath for which her body heaved to accommodate, "We need get out of here."

Then Alice remembered the trinket. If it had gotten them there then surely...

"No way! Just turn the thing back-"

"Do you think I haven't tried?" Marie answered easily, "You were still out cold. So while I waited for you to wake up, I tried. I began to worry that you were actually dead after a while, I thought the pulse I felt was some sort of echo of life...then you did...and the 'thing' didn't work."

Alice's mouth fell open. _An echo of life._ She shook her head free of the haunting thought,

"This is insane, we can't go out there!"

"We'll have too," Marie countered, bustling to the window to glance out of it, gauging the obstacles, "The answers won't be in here, Alice, they'll be out there but we'll have to fit in."

"How?!" Alice demanded. The idea of mixing with the outside world was beyond her fathoming.

Marie edged over to a cupboard that sat idly in the corner of the room. Just as dusty as the rest of it. Alice followed Marie's movements with scepticism until Marie opened it and revealed its contents.

An endless amount of women and men's clothing. She glanced over her shoulder at Alice,

"I got it."

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Moments later, they shuffled out into the world. Marie's hair was done up in a bunch, bits of hair rebelled beneath a petit bonnet. She stood out in a crowd with her dark skin and wild mop but she looked striking.

Alice felt like a fish out of water despite how elegant and genteel Marie said she looked in her garb. She felt somewhat futile against the likes of her friend. The adventure of a lifetime was before them but Alice couldn't rise to it. Marie appeared to have prepared for this moment her whole life.

Alice had rolled her eyes. No one even gave them a second glance. They were walking arm in arm. As time plodded on around them, Alice became aware of Marie's grip growing tighter and tighter. The look on her face grew more and more excited, her eyes growing wider and wider as they looked on.

Alice, however, grew more and more worried about Marie's growing excitement.

"Look," she whispered, pointing at nothing, "Alice..."

Alice looked but she feared she was seeing something different. A glass world made to shatter. All sorts of theories about choice and time fluttered through her head; Schrodinger's cat, chaos theory – all of them made one thing very clear; very small actions impacted very great things. They were in the heart of the past.

None of this fear was on Marie's face, she saw this world as merely different and something to be explored despite her history teachings.

Sometimes Alice wished she was more like Marie, but not now.

"Marie, please, _please_ focus!"

Marie seemed to sense Alice's worry as well as hear it and she turned, suddenly serious,

"We'll be fine, Alice, we'll figure it out. But for now, look, we're still in Albany," she pointed to a sign that welcomed and bid farewell, then she looked at the expanse of water in front of them, "It's the Hudson River. Have you ever seen it so clean?"

If not for the gentle hush of wonder in Marie's voice, Alice might have seen nothing.

But the river rolled in untarnished from an open ocean not far away. The ground was dirt, not dirty. There was space and the air was fresh. The people buzzed but not loudly. Life was simple and enough.

Alice found herself leaving Marie's side to drift to the jetty where she gazed out over the twinkle of the water. The river was wide, wide enough for the opposite shore to be a mirage. The breeze blew softly against her face and a distinct feeling of nostalgia made itself known. She'd been standing there before once. Maybe in a dream, in a different time. But she'd stood there all the same. She was sure. On the ground at her feet, an old newspaper lay. She leant down to read it. The headline, though hazy, read 'WAR DECLARED OVER'. The year; 1765.

 _It really worked..._ She thought in wonder before straightening to gaze thoughtfully over the river.

"You remind me of my son, the way you stand there now."

Alice spun on her heel, almost toppling off her heels. She found herself looking into the damaged eyes of a man deeply hurt. An man with wrinkles of sorrow that outweighed the laughter.

A heavy brow that sank lower every day. He was a native but not so traditionally garbed. Instead he wore buckskins with a cotton shirt tucked into a belt that held his tomahawk, hanging limp and untouched by his hip, a musket in his weary hand but easily dropped. His voice shook when he addressed her. As he looked at her, his eyes seemed to narrow.

"You remind me of his..." voice trailed off, eyes widening, "I know your face, child."

He took a step forward, reaching out to her,

"Moon child...Alice?"

Alice almost fell off the jetty. She'd miraculously been recognised. Her fears were coming alive. Marie was still floating around not too far off, too enticed by her surroundings too have seen Alice's encounter. There was no way out but one; she bolted.

She whipped past the surprised looking Indian, his hand still held aloft even moments after she tore past him.

Marie turned just in time to look surprised before Alice grabbed her wrist and kept going, leading them back to the abandoned cabin they'd just come from, slamming the door behind her and huddling into a corner.

Marie was still in a state of shock,

"Fuck me...what the hell was that?!"

Alice couldn't form the words. Marie knelt down to her, reigning in her surprise,

"What happened?"

Alice crawled to the window and peered through the glass. She spied exactly what she hoped she wouldn't see. The man was looking for her, he was wading anxiously through the crowd, tormented and yet he was only a spot of bother to those around him.

It tugged violently at Alice's heart strings.

"That man," she pointed, "The Indian; he's looking for me. I met him on the jetty,"

"Why would he be looking for you?" Marie enquired, looking curiously out the window beside Alice, "What did you do? What happened..?

Alice glanced over at Marie, she appeared to be affected by the man's obvious despair too,

"He looks..so...lost."

"I don't know, really," Alice answered, "But he recognises me from somewhere...Marie?"

"Yeah?"

"He knows my name."

Marie looked at Alice in concern before turning both of their attention back to the man. Only, he wasn't there.

"Where'd he go?" Marie asked abruptly, trying to counter the limits the dirty glass put on her vision.

Then the door behind them gently clicked and swung open. The action was non-threatening and entirely civil but Alice and Marie screamed anyway.

When they'd stilled, the man walked towards Alice cautiously, his eyes set on hers, even as he lowered himself to her level,

"Alice," He whispered again, sure of himself now that her face was very near his own, as clear as day. His eyes grew misty as memory overcame him,

"I saw my child fall from a cliff, his throat open. I swear I saw you follow him... he has died for you. How is it," Alice felt his course and calloused fingers on her cheek as he took her in, "That when you died for him, you are still here? Because you _are_ here. So he must be too, no? Alice, where-where is my son?"

His voice broke and he let out a deep, guttural sob that was obviously unintended but he made no move to hide it.

Alice knew that no words she could muster up would ever be enough. The truth, least of all.

But she couldn't very well leave him like he was. Where would she run too? The answers were accessible. Dangerous, but accessible.

"I'll find out," she whispered hoarsely. To her relief, the man before her smiled the smallest of smiles. Alice felt a surge of courage and determination.

She looked over at Marie. Marie was still caught up in the situation and was too slow to stop Alice when she finally did catch on.

"Alice, no wait!"

But Alice had already grabbed the tiny clock. Yanking it from around Marie's neck, she spun it only a half spin in hopes she'd magically mastered the art of time. It was too late to realise the stupidity so she just gazed apologetically at Marie as she slowly blurred out of view.

The second time lapse was less traumatic than the first. Alice wasn't robbed of air, nothing collapsed on her. Things simply faded into a shadow, even the man kneeling in front of her showed no signs of dismay. He remained frozen in his position until the essence of time wiped him out layer by layer until there was nothing but the outline of his being there. Then that too blew away like dust.

When things settled and the world came back to what it was, Alice was looking out over the river again. The same sense of nostalgia was there only this time she knew exactly where the feeling came from. It was an odd thought. An abstract concept she was able to understand from simply experiencing it.

She'd stood there moments before...in the future.

"You remind me of someone I met once, standing there the way you are now," came a familiar voice.

Alice took a breath to steady herself, then turned. The man before her was the same man but stronger, the laugh lines were still very clear. His eyes still danced. He was still happy.

On either side of him stood too exceedingly striking men. One was white with dark hair, dark eyes and a sharp, all knowing face. Handsome all the while.

The other was an enigma. A stoic face that conveyed nothing of his thoughts, taller than both the other men, slimmer and more elegant. His eyes were sharp too, his cheekbones sharper. His skin darkened by the sun and he stood impossibly still. The 'Son', Alice knew and she was enthralled by his beauty.

 _This is who I would die for? Who would die for me? Impossible._

Then she remembered it wouldn't be her. It would be someone like her. Another her. It was a disappointing thought.

"hmm..." The older man mused, narrowing his eyes, "I do not remember the name or the face but I remember the feeling."

The moment scared her. The original fear came sailing back. Lost in the picture that was gazing back at her, Alice saw a flicker in the Son's eyes. A blink of recognition followed by a brief puzzlement, a frown, a cocked head. It was enough to have Alice believe, somewhat to her horror, that he too, recognised her, even if it was only the feeling.

After all, if all of what the man had told her was true, then the son had indeed seen her once before, in a different time.

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 **How are we feeling? Navigating the characters around what they do and don't know as well as around each other is a bloody nightmare. Maybe not so much in this chapter but in the ones following it but it's a fun challenge.  
Don't forget to leave a review.  
** **Oh, and I really don't mind any kind of constructive critique. This one's a big one, so if you catch something that doesn't make sense, or feel like it's not working - lemme know. Be kind about it, but let me know.**

 **Ta!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2. I feel this might be a slow-progress kinda story but in a good way. I tried to edit Chapter 1 again to make things a little easier to follow. Potentially still in the editing room - this chapter and the last. So be prepared.**

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Alice felt like she need to run again. Reverse everything. She froze, her eyes darting between the three men and Marie. Marie looked just as taken aback.

"I don't mean to worry you, child," the older man said reassuringly, "I suppose we'll be on our way."

They began to walk away, the white man threw her a cheeky smile before he followed his older. The younger man lingered a moment, looking Alice over before moving on too.

Marie looked relieved when she caught Alice's eye but Alice had done this for a reason. She had come to find out what had happened to the Son to help the broken man.

"We're lost," she blurted out suddenly in an effort to stop them.

Marie froze, eyes widening.

The three men stopped and turned but it was the white man who spoke, somewhat amused,

"You're in Albany." He winked.

Alice shrugged,

"Yes. But...I don't want to be in Albany. My companion and I," she gestured to Marie who stopped her wild inspection to stare back at the men now staring at her, "We want to get to...uh..."

She looked to Marie for help. The other woman caught sight of a newspaper title and stepped forward,

"Fort William Henry."

The white man frowned, the others looked puzzled,

"You want to go to the Fort? That place is war country," the white man said knowingly, leaning on his musket, "The English are occupying it but not for long. The French are on their way,"

"What do you mean?" Marie took another step forward, her presence growing.

The white man turned to her fully,

"There's a war on, haven't you girls heard? Or perhaps you've missed the army marching by your windows," He gestured to another troop as they marched by neatly, each step in accordance with the drum that lead the way, "Word has it the crown'll be askin' for scouts and soldiers. Means only one thing,"

"And what's that?" Marie asked, the expression on her face was unreadable.

The white man smirked, casting a bereaved look back at his compatriots,

"The Frontiersmen and the Indians alike are going to be asked to pick a side."

The older man stepped in, his voice soft but demanded attention. It was the voice of wisdom, it didn't need volume,

"Pick a side and fight against each other. The white man promise them land, trade and safety. He gives them war. The crumbling of the Americas has begun."

Marie slunk back, not cowering, but more aware as Alice had so righteously asked her to be.

 _The crumbling of the Americas...now there's a statement,_ Alice thought sadly. Her eyes dropped, then shifted to a newspaper laying abandoned on the ground.

She drifted to it and picked it up tentatively. All eyes were on her. When she flipped it over to read the article beneath, the first sentence sealed everything.

Fate was real and time had a warped sense of humour.

Alice threw the paper to Marie who only just managed to catch it. She read the first line aloud,

"'Colonel Munro holds the Fort...'date, 1757," she traced the stencilled picture of the seasoned soldier uncertainly, her face conveying the worry, "That man sure looks an awful lot like your father."

Alice was hyperventilating. Her chest was growing tighter and tighter. Yes he did and he shared the same name and the year had changed. They had found themselves a further 8 years back down the line. Questions were coming from nowhere in quick succession quite suddenly. Most importantly, this Uncas had never seen her before as far as she was concerned and yet he recognised her. Sure that meant that past and future were connected in some God-forsaken fashion. What impact would that have on her and Marie being there?

"I need to get there," she said, turning back to the Frontiersman, "With or without your help. How do I do it?"

The white man frowned at her,

"Hop on a wagon and hope for the best. You won't be gettin' any help from us," He answered snidely, "Send your father my regards."

He turned away and walked past his companions without looking back. The two remaining men lingered. Gauging their thoughts before they too abandoned the girls. The younger man's eyes locked on Alice's briefly before he, too, finally turned away.

Marie stood staring after them while Alice immediately set about finding a means to get to the Fort. She knew that somewhere in the Sands of time, her sanity was getting buried. But no matter, she had to get to that fort. It was her father…somehow. Marie would disagree.

She spied a small band of soldiers getting ready to leave. There was an Indian scout ahead of them all; a fierce looking man with a shaven head save for a tuft of hair on the crown of his head that filtered down into an impressive wave down his back. Another sense of familiarity hit Alice and she hesitated. A soldier, in charge of the troupe was standing nearby.

He looked agitated and lost, looking for something or someone with his hand shielding his eyes from the sun.

Alice took a step forward but was suddenly halted by Marie's soft and strangely menacing enquiry,

"Alice?"

She turned to Marie, heeding the uncertain call. She was still staring after the men,

"The reason you came back here for has disappeared."

Alice was silent, already feeling the heat of Marie's fury,

"Instead you intend to take us to a war zone. What _exactly_ is it that you're planning on doing?"

"I need to know," was all Alice could think of to say, "I've been getting these strange feelings. I've been here before, I know these people, I just- I just need to know."

Marie was gazing at her sceptically,

"You haven't been here before, Alice. Someone else has, another you. You said you know them, obviously they know you in some shape or form too. What will you do when you finally meet this 'other' you?"

Alice hadn't thought of that but they were there now. There was nothing else for them to do. Alice shrugged.

"Right," Marie's shoulders slumped.

Alice, sensing the end of their current conflict, began to inch away towards the troupe she had intended to get too. Hinting at Marie to follow but she was looking reluctant and defeated.

Alice was about to say something but then her name was being called out.

"Alice! Cora!"

Alice spun round in surprise while Marie merely shifted her gaze reluctantly. They watched as the soldier from the garrison marched towards them determinedly. He, too, was a fine specimen in his uniform. Tall and muscular and an air of confident pride that emanated from his being.

He stopped in front of them. He blinked, blanching back the tiniest amount before shaking himself free. The girls glanced at each other.

"I apologise, I had a brief moment of curiously vivid déjà vu," He smiled warmly, placing two thick, strong hands on either girl's shoulder, "I have been looking for you everywhere. It's been a nightmare but we're ready to go and we should leave now before this heat gets any worse!"

He turned on his heel and hurried back to the horses.

Alice turned to Marie, preparing to tell her, her fears. This man had been tainted by their future selves too. But Marie he looked unsettled and put Alice off from expanding on this notion. Instead she enquired about the name he used for Marie.

"Cora?" Alice asked, confused, "Your name isn't Cora...why would he-"

"My middle name is," Marie answered abruptly, her hands on her hips, suddenly looking uncomfortable, "I hate it."

"You never told me that..." Alice turned back to the man now waiting for them by a pair of horses.

"No," Marie glanced at Alice, "Did you see the look on his face?"

Alice nodded,

"I also saw the look on yours," Alice began to walk away, "You feel like you've been here before too."

Marie's footsteps hurried up to her,

"I standby what I said. We've never been here and when we meet the people who have and-or are," Marie made sure to give Alice a hard look, "We'll be in the shit and it'll be on your head."

"You were so excited when we got here, why can't you keep that excitement? I'm panicked enough!"

"You double-timed us, that's why. Have you not noticed how people we aren't supposed to have met yet are recognising us? We're in trouble. All I'm interested in now, is making sure we don't meet ourselves. I can't begin to imagine what will happen then," Marie's voice turned cold, "I have no idea what's going on. You're supposed to be the sensible one."

Alice didn't bother to look back, she didn't want to think about the outcome. Not when the mistake had been done and couldn't be changed. She was solely focused on the next step of this peculiar adventure.

The soldier was kind enough to help Alice onto her horse before tapping her on the leg like a child. _Does he know I'm 22 years old...?_ She wondered, gently shaking off the patronising warmth his hand left after having done so,

"I'll go and help your sister and then we'll be on our way." He smiled warmly while Alice returned the perturbed look Marie was already giving her,

"Kind of our soldier, Sister," Marie chided, "I wonder, does he know about the war at the Fort?"

"Yes, your Major Duncan Hayward certainly does, Cora Munro," He winked at her, "But you needn't worry. The war isn't actually on the doorstep of the Fort. Your father's holding it without the hassle, thank God. Do you honestly think I'd take you there if there was?"

He tutted her before mounting his own steed,

"Ready, ladies?"

Alice couldn't have felt more befuddled if she tried. Marie appeared to be the same. Shrugging as Alice answered more eloquently,

"Whenever you are."

The man, Duncan, nodded,

"Lead on, Scout," He called and ahead of them, as the scout did as was bid, their little band set off towards the wilderness.

Alice felt uncomfortable upon her horse. She or the saddle was slipping this way and that and she was anticipating a fall.

"Sisters," Marie commented, coming up beside her, "I would never have thought,"

"Yeah," Alice managed in between slides, "Seems 'Father' had more than one marriage to various women of colour,"

"Two, considering there are only two of _us_ ," Marie corrected, looking irritated, "So Duncan Hayward. Lucky we didn't have to ask someone who he was. Ringing any bells?"

Alice heard the sarcasm in her voice like a creeper up a house wall,

"Stop being so condescending towards my feelings, will you? We've established that you have them too,"

"Yes but I haven't sent us deeper into the past in pursuit of a dead man who, might I add, is gone!" she countered viciously under her breath. Alice had no argument. Marie was right no matter how frustrated it made Alice.

"No," Alice finally replied, "I have no ringing bells for Hayward." Which was not entirely true.

Marie could have driven a final stake through the heart, had the last word but Alice, time and again, praised the fact that Marie, despite her fire, was merciful.

They trundled on in an odd silence. Alice kept her eyes on the scout ahead while Marie looked around curiously, gazing deeply into the body of the woods.

She shifted and rubbed her eyes, hmm'd to herself then stilled.

The scout walked on without looking back tirelessly, a man on a mission. He neither tripped nor stumbled, nor did he look down. Alice concluded that he knew this path better than most people knew their way home.

He was a benevolent man, teaming with an unspoken contempt for his companions. Marie's constant shifts, twists and turns, alongside the deadly quiet of the wilderness made Alice feel uneasy. Something was amiss.

"Can we stop a while?" she called out to the Major, drawing Marie's eyes to her.

"Certainly," the major consented eagerly, "You there, Scout!"

"So you've got a bad feeling too, huh?" Marie said quietly, "I swear there's something in the woods."

Alice squinted into the darkness but couldn't see anything. It was even more disconcerting.

"I don't know what it is...the scout's a bit..."

"I'm not a fan either," Marie agreed, "Looks well pissed off."

They listened to Hayward and the Scout's tense interaction before the scout simply walked ahead of Hayward, leaving him in bewilderment. But the Scout, once having reached a bend in the path, turned back and started towards them.

Alice instinctively slowed her horse, Marie did the same but remained just ahead of Alice.

"What's he doing?" Alice whispered to Marie but Marie didn't answer. Their Scout had picked up momentum and had removed something from the clasp of his hip. He headed straight for the first soldier he saw. He swung his tomahawk violently, cutting deep into the tender muscle in the crook of his neck. Chaos erupted as the man screamed in agony before dying. The forestry around them came alive. Men came tearing out from the undergrowth so quickly that the soldiers didn't know where to look as Hayward tried to take charge of the situation.

Alice screamed shrilly at the sudden attack and instantly wished she didn't. The Scout caught sight of them and raised a stolen musket to take aim. The blood in Alice's veins ran cold, dread dropped like a cannonball from the pit of her stomach.

"Holy M-" Marie cried as she practically threw herself from her horse, narrowly avoiding getting shot. Her horse spooked and bolted, thundering over everything and everyone in its way. The scout simply stepped aside and prepared to take aim again.

Alice's horse took fright soon after, unsure of what to do or where to go, perilously attached to an untrained rider. Alice clung to the saddle with a fierce determination not to fall off as Marie tried desperately to take hold of the reigns.

"Alice!" she yelled, "Alice, get off the horse!"

But Alice couldn't think, couldn't move and couldn't breathe. Dead men were suddenly everywhere, the whooping cries of the war party were in the air. Duncan Hayward had come off of his horse and had resorted to a cutlass. It was a skinny sword with no leverage unless stuck in the right place.

All the while Alice was staring into the eyes of the man she didn't know and who wanted to kill her. There was no mirth, no smirk, no hint of joy – just loathing as clear as day.

She felt the firm grip of her friend clench that tuft of her dress just as the villain pulled the trigger. Alice was pulled from her saddle, the finest wisp of hair going rogue as the ball of bullet sailed past her. She hit the ground hard while her horse, finally free, panicked and ran off too.

Winded and stunned into a stupor, Marie's attempts at trying to pull Alice off of the ground were futile,

"Get up!" she was demanding, "Alice, get up, get up, get up! Quickly!"

But Alice was too terrified, too breathless. She twisted her head and through the massacre, the terrifying sight of the scout clawing his way towards them with a knife held aloft jolted Alice into action.

Suddenly she was on her feet with her heart in her mouth,

"RUN!" Marie yelled in her ear as she grasped Alice's wrist and bolted into the undergrowth, leaving the struggle behind them and going awry into the unknown.

Marie's breathless panting was what kept Alice going. They were alive. The past was a horrible wake-up call, proving its existence by trying to kill them.

Everything was as alive as alive could be. They ran until they realised that the sounds they were running from were only their own feet.

Marie slowed but let her skirts down too soon and took a tumble. She didn't bother getting up as she panted into the humidity. Her skin glowed with the perspiration derived from their efforts. She had a cut on her cheek. The skin on her hands was raw from where she jumped from her horse and tried to take hold of Alice's.

Alice looked down at her own hands and found them to be dirty but not much else. She was winded and that was the extent of her damage.

She felt somewhat stupid. In the heat of the moment Alice proved useless. Marie proved otherwise. She also seemed to be a fine addition to the wilderness with her bushy hair coming loose and dark skin. Even with her cuts and grazes, she emanated a certain grace. Alice felt fickle for it but she suddenly felt jealous. Jealous and terrified.

She sat down next to Marie and resisted asking her what their next move was until she realised she couldn't think straight.

"What now?" Alice asked finally, giving into the want to follow rather than lead, finding comfort in handing over the responsibility to someone else.

Marie lay still, staring up at the canopy,

"I..." but it turned out she couldn't think either.

They were stuck.

A few moments later, a rustle caught their attention. Alice only froze in fear once more while Marie proved her worth again by leaping to her feet in preparation. But the man who stepped from the bushes was dishevelled and unthreatening, breathless and unmistakably British; Hayward had survived.

He rushed forward upon recognising them, enveloping Alice and Marie in a bear hug,

"Thank God!" He whispered hoarsely, "I ran after you for no other reason than to make sure you were safe."

Marie just stared at him, amazed that he'd even survived with all his cutting about with a twig of a sword.

 _Safe?_ Alice thought, _fuckin hell._

Marie squirmed loose of the embrace, pale and borderline hysterical,

"What the…why?" she almost screamed, unable to form any kind of comprehensible sentence.

Alice gently released herself from Hayward's grasp, still aware of how unfamiliar he actually was despite the moment indicating otherwise. She had no recollection of a past with this man though clearly they were far from strangers.

"Who was that, Duncan? Why did that happen?"

Hayward was still catching his breath, looking empty with no one to hold onto,

"I assure you I have no idea," He stressed this more onto Marie than Alice. As a result, Alice sensed an attachment which Marie was of yet, unaware of.

Marie sat back down, glancing up at Alice, holding her head, trying to get bearings. Alice felt lost and uncertain.

She felt stupid; her heroic pursuit of time had landed them in more trouble than she had anticipated. But then again, she didn't know what she was anticipating. But somebody wanted to kill them and that was enough to set the record straight.

Just then, there came another rustling from the woods, the sound of soft footsteps with nobody attached to them. The trio huddled into each other while Hayward brandished his weapon once more,

"Come out," He called challengingly though Alice could see how his hands shook subtly, "Show your faces, let's finish this madness like men."

"With that?" came a familiar voice; gruff and knowing, "I could have shot you a 100 yards away."

From the shadows of the undergrowth stepped the white man from Albany, his companions seemed to float out from either side, as silent as the grave.

"Amazed you're still alive," He grinned at Hayward who continued to hold his sword high. Alice peered out from behind his shoulder, looking in wonder at the site that was before her. The Son. He stood tall, his musket head plugged into the ground, his hands resting atop of it as he lazed back to watch the interaction unfold. It didn't take long for him to find Alice either as she tried to make herself scarce. He intimidated her. He held her gaze until Hayward spoke, at which point his gaze drifted from her to him,

"Who are you?"

"Well, we're just men of the Frontier," the white Frontiersman answered easily, "We tracked the war party to your ambush. We were about to join in the fun but then you ran. You ran fast. Needless to say we followed you. The world's beautiful out here but it'll get you killed if you don't know what you're doin'."

With another small smile he turned his attention to Alice,

"You're a lucky one, aren't you? Thought it was your end until your friend there pulled you from your horse," He nodded towards Marie who maintained her silence.

"Lucky," Alice mimicked, letting a feint, exasperated giggle escape her lips, "Yes."

"Why did the Huron want you dead?" The white man asked suddenly serious, "He had a particular interest in you two. Do you know him?"

"We hardly know anyone," Marie chirped, making Alice freeze. Marie cast her an apologetic glance before continuing, "We don't know. We've never seen him before. Not until today."

The white man nodded thoughtfully before sharing a look with the older man off to his right who stood far prouder and of a thicker, sturdier build.

Alice waited for something to happen while the Frontiersmen spoke to each other in a language Alice couldn't comprehend in any shape or form. Once having reached a conclusion, the youngest of them having only added a nod of agreement, the white man finally spoke again,

"You girls still trying to get to Albany?"

"Wait! What- who are you?" Hayward demanded again "and how do you know them?"

"Well we met in Albany, Sir," the white man responded casually, "They were lookin' for a passage up to Fort William Henry. I imagine that's where you're goin'?"

Hayward nodded, set to say something more then he stalled,

"A passage..." He turned to Alice and Marie in confusion, "Why were you looking for a passage to the Fort? We had this journey planned for two days."

The girls were at a loss. Alice felt the tug of panic and in her panic, she answered,

"Forgot. You know our memories," she smiled uncertainly, Marie's eyebrows rose slightly out of the corner of her eye. But the reply only served to confuse the soldier more,

"No," He said shaking his head, "I've always known your memories to be impeccable."

Marie's eyebrows rose even higher. Alice ran out of ideas. Luckily the conversation moved on, with the white man shaking his head in amusement,

"The point is, we'll take you to the Fort. The road you plan on taking will get you killed so..." He shrugged, "Prepare for the wilderness. And while we're at it; I'm Nathaniel, my father, Chingachgook and my brother, Uncas."

Alice stole another glance at the youngest, admiring his cheekbones.

"Duncan Hayward," Marie answered obligingly to which Hayward cut in,

" _Major_ Duncan Hayward."

Marie ignored him,

"That's Alice and I'm Marie,"

"Cora," Alice corrected. Marie jumped slightly,

"Cora, Marie's a middle name," she stammered, reversing her middle names to fit the situation.

"Is it?"

Poor Hayward was being handed an endless array of puzzling food for thought. Marie was incredibly quick, though, brushing it off with ease,

"Yes, did father never tell you?"

Alice fought hard to conceal her amusement, a desperate urge to laugh building in her core. She covered her mouth to fend it off but Marie didn't even look at her.

"We're grateful for your help," she said again before Hayward could answer.

Nathaniel accepted her thanks before moving,

"Alright then," He said, looking sceptical at the girls, "Let's get on our way."

Marie, otherwise known as a reluctant Cora, gave Alice an exasperated look as her shoulders sagged.

He moved off first with Chingachgook in tow who smiled warmly at Alice as he passed. They were followed by Duncan and Marie who gave Alice a speculative, wide eyed glance. Alice hesitated a moment before she realised Uncas was waiting patiently for her to go first.

She started abruptly, muttering an apology for keeping him waiting as she went. Giving one last glance to the road. Instead, she found Uncas as he looked right back.

* * *

 **Right, so Marie's middle name is Cora. I don't know why I did this. I used to think it was because I don't like the name Cora but other than my previous story, a random 'Marie' never existed. So I adapted. Maybe not my best laid plan. What say you?  
Again, I say, still in the editing room...probably. ****So don't forget to review!  
Ta!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So...this is going to be a slow burn it seems...**

* * *

Alice stuck close to Marie all the while, waiting for a moment of distance between Duncan ahead and Uncas behind so they could talk.

When it finally did come, Marie spoke first,

"That was stupidly close."

Alice laughed, despite the terrors,

"You sounded like a child,"

"At least I didn't act like one! Who were you hiding from?"

Alice felt her amusement subside to be replaced by futility,

"I don't know," she shrugged, looking down, "I'm a fearful person, I suppose."

"Pfft no you're not." Marie's sudden downplaying of Alice's shame came as a surprise but Marie continued,

"We wouldn't be in this mess if it wasn't for you and your decision to challenge time. Talking of which," Marie glanced up, ignoring Alice's surprise, "When we get to the Fort and we find...us...we leg it."

"What, not now?" Alice asked sarcastically but that too, flew over Marie's head,

"No, not much we can do about our current situation, Lady, we've messed that well up."

"Ok," Alice wiped the growing film of sweat from off her face, "How would we be there already? You heard Duncan. He said we'd planned this trip already. We've probably left them behind."

"Yes and with a safer journey on a cleaner road. God help them when they find the massacre," Marie shut her eyes and cringed before continuing, "They'll get there, so will we. There'll be a brief moment of confusion, we'll be intruders but not for long. We leg it and let Duncan remain perplexed for the rest of his life."

"Haunt him..." Alice mused aloud. The thought caught Marie off guard. She slowed enough for Alice to walk past her without realising. When Alice looked back, Marie was frowning. Worry was on her face, a deeper worry. The worry that came with regards to the well fare of other people.

 _An echo of life_ Alice recalled Marie saying and that was what they were to be were they to become fly-by-nights. Not one of their companions would ever be sure they existed. Their present counterparts, the 'real' Alice and Cora/Marie would always be in the dark as to what people would be referring too. Parts of their lives would be lost to them.

"Yes," Marie said, barely audibly, catching up, "yes...haunt them. Same as they'll haunt us."

"I came here for a reason," Alice countered, "I can't just abandon that."

"Yeah? What exactly do you plan on doing once you've figured it out? Telling Chingachgook that you knew all along? You'll be a hero. Will you try and stop death? I wouldn't recommend it." Marie didn't stop her trek even as she bombarded Alice with questions she couldn't answer, "Let him die. Besides...1757 has got alarm bells all over it. We best get away."

"What bells?" she asked abruptly, disturbed by the revelation.

"Can't remember...but trust that I will at the worst moment," Marie answered evenly.

Alice was speechless. Marie's words about Uncas were harsh and unyielding, the foreboding in her fears about the year were unsettling. As she wafted ahead of Alice, her eyes sought out the heaving body of the old Indian as he trundled through the woods, leaving their conversation to hang in the air like smoke.

Alice followed Marie's gaze thoughtfully. So lost in her thoughts was she that she took a misstep and stumbled. Before she hit the ground, a strong hand caught her elbow and stopped her descent. For a moment, she glided across the ground, weightless in the hands of someone else until she found her feet and then the grip ceased and she stood on her own.

The youngest man of the frontier, Uncas, walked not far behind. There was no evidence of him being the hero but who else was there?

"Be careful, miss," He said in a deep voice, deeper than Alice expected yet perfectly matched to his silent exterior. It was scratchy as if rusted from a lack of use. The words were out of her mouth before Alice could think to stop them,

"Are those the first words you've said today?"

Uncas looked momentarily taken aback before a hint of amusement played at the corners of his mouth. He nodded but said nothing.

Alice mimicked him then turned back to her thoughts with a mild,

"Thank you."

Uncas, again, did not respond.

It wasn't long before they reached the river. The rolling river that glinted in the sun and fell effortlessly over the precipice of a small waterfall that they would have to climb over.

The beauty of their surroundings was captivating, stealing Alice's breath away with its uncompromising glory. Untouched, unchecked and unchallenged, the wilderness was alive in a wondrous existence that made a light glow bright in the core of the soul. Alice breathed in the freshness of the air, the smell of wet shrubbery filling her lungs. She closed her eyes briefly to listen to the sound of life but it was short lived as Marie drew level with her,

"Can't stop yet," she whispered excitedly, seeming to have forgotten about their rather morbid conversation,"Finally, I get to show off my climbing skills!"

Alice looked up at the miniature Everest and held back a groan. It had become increasingly apparent how easily Marie fitted into the outdoors. Alice, on the other hand, did not. She didn't mind it, as long as she didn't have to trek through it. The minor moment she had just had to herself had been the best of the adventure thus far. Climbing was not her forte. She dreaded it.

She watched the others sail up it with ease, Hayward kneeling down to help Marie up but she got to the top without his help and looked proud because of it.

When it came to Alice's turn, no one was there. She thought of protesting it but decided against it. She refused to be as fickle as she felt. Still, it was steep and she wasn't sure of foot.

"Do you need my help, miss?"

Alice spun around and found Uncas gazing at her curiously.

Alice shook her head vigorously,

"No, I'm sure I can do it on my own."

Uncas didn't protest. Instead he accepted her decision without a bother and proceeded to wait until she made it up. She had just about done it when her hand slipped. The skin of her palms opened up wide and she let out a small yelp but still she didn't ask for Uncas' help.

She glanced down at him and found him watching her closely, his body ready but he didn't move to catch her.

With this in mind, Alice tried again. She all but rolled over the top of the fall in relief, breathing heavily in effort and relief, clutching her palms and taking note of the blood mark she left on the rock. _That, too, will be an echo of my existence._

Moments later, Uncas had arrived, kneeling to her and grasping her injured hand without permission. He examined it closely before ruffling rough his sling bag and drawing a small bottle of the clearest liquid from its contents.

"Is that water?" Alice asked sceptically, scrutinising the small bottle as Uncas uncorked it forcefully, the stringy muscles in his forearms flexing as he did so.

"Alcohol," He corrected, "Too small to be of any real danger but best to be safe."

He poured it on without warning and Alice gasped. The application of the alcohol stung more than the actual act of cutting herself.

"Bloody hell!" she blurted out before frantically covering her potty mouth, "I'm so sorry,"

"Why?" Uncas gave a half smile, unmoved by Alice's outlet of language, "I've heard worse,"

He helped her up,

"So have you."

He allowed her to move past him again. Then she turned abruptly, stopping him in his tracks. He stopped dead to look at her. The dying light caught his cheek bones just so, throwing the dentures of his cheeks into shadow. His brown eyes shone in the half light and his black hair shimmered. He was indeed, quite a specimen.

Alice gaped at him, searching for what she had intended to say before realising she had forgotten. She turned away and kept on. Shaking her head at herself.

"Alright?" He asked from behind her.

"Fine," she answered without turning back.

Just as evening was finally settling in, Alice noted that Marie was in deep conversation with Nathaniel, deep if not tense. Ahead, Duncan walked as if disgruntled. Even further ahead, Chingachgook walked on without tiring. Leading them on confidently. Ever aware of his surroundings and light on his feet, he suited the land.

Alice looked around indulgently, amazed at how different the world was. All the illustrations and descriptions in modern history books and historical novels were not enough, not even correct. It was wilder and simultaneously more peaceful.

But something was amiss. Ahead of them, Chingachgook had stopped and had elicited a small whistle to draw the attention of his sons.

Smoke was spiralling up above the trees ahead of them, a dull heat pulsed out from ahead. Marie backtracked to Alice, her nerves evident on her face.

Uncas, who stood silently behind, moved past them suddenly. Chingachgook motioned for him to head around the edge to appear on the opposite side.

As the frontiersmen crept forward to investigate, Nathaniel motioned for the two women and Duncan to stay put, bringing the trek to a standstill.

The trio stood in uncertain silence as they waited. They exchanged no words as they waited for the worst. Alice already felt herself preparing to run.

Her intuition was right, it seemed, as woops were heard, shots were fired and the clang of steel on steel rose into the night.

Moments later, Nathaniel burst out of the wilderness.

"Run!" He called as he approached. Marie wasted no time, nor did Duncan. Alice was unsure of what she was waiting for or why she felt she had too but she couldn't move. Her eyes were glued to the edge of the clearing.

Chingachgook ran out not long after, urging her to run. When she didn't, he slowed,

"Come, child, run!"

But Alice couldn't move. Even as Chingachgook tugged at her hand urgently, she looked on in a steadily growing dread, wondering whether this was how Uncas was to die and whether she knew what she was to do next.

Against the pull of Chingachgook, Alice took a shaky step forward towards that which she feared,

"Girl" Chingachgook cried forcefully, disabling Alice's advances.

Then Uncas finally did come sailing out of the clearing, surging forward with a faster pace when another warrior roared out from his left to kill him with the likes of a madman.

Uncas jutted his tomahawk out and up through the gut of his assailant who fell instantly. Dead without warning.

When Uncas saw Alice and his anxious father, he looked confused,

"Go!" He said, catching up to them, "Go, go!"

A mix of horror and relief overcame Alice; seeing Uncas emerge alive was a great thing for her morale; seeing a man cut down so brutally was not, even if he was the attacker. Still, she found she could heed Chingachgook more easily.

She ran, her hand still clasped in the elder man's as if he were afraid she might run back. Uncas was ahead, racing through the trees where Chingachgook could see him. Life was pumping through their veins as they escaped.

Their escape through the trees was quick and no one followed them.

It was dark when they finally stopped. Alice was breathless and in between dreams.

Somewhere in between time, Nathaniel's fury had risen and Marie, in turn, had risen to the challenge.

"You two have lead us straight into hell!" He sniffed and turned away angrily.

Marie gasped,

"How dare you!" she raged back, ignoring the distress. Alice could see it in them all. In Uncas, in Chingachgook, in Nathaniel though Nathaniel was the only one who acted on it. The fine fingers of sorrow.

"You blame us for this mess? For the death of strangers? You left them there and told us to run, we ran!" She continued harshly, "We don't even know what we're running from! Twice today, people have tried to kill us! We. Don't. Know. Why! And you blame us?!"

"I blame your ignorance! Who wants to casually wonder into war?" Nathaniel threw his hands up, "I blame your ignorance and your lack of decency!"

"Decency?" Marie fired back once more, "You _abandoned_ them!"

"You can't abandon something that's already dead…"

"So you won't go back to bury them? My lack of decency," she snorted, " _Your_ cruel indifference!"

Alice sensed the hackles on the backs of the three Frontiersmen go up, if they weren't careful, they'd be in the depths of Nathaniel's hell alone. Marie was being overly harsh, Alice had to admit, but she understood. She knew Marie well enough to see where this was coming from. She could not say the same for the others, maybe not even Duncan who stood to the side. He looked as if he were to stand by Marie, argue her point but Alice sensed he wold be in over his head were he to do so.

"M...Cora," she whispered, "Cora, stop."

"I appreciate your help, I do," Marie powered on over Alice, she was growing breathless, each inhalation was strained and her eyes glistened, "But don't you call me indecent. I have left no one behind and if you _ever_ had an inkling of an idea of what Alice and I are doing here, you'd take every God-damned word right back!"

Everyone appeared to be slightly baffled by this statement. After all, as far they were aware, they knew perfectly well why they were there.

"Cora," Alice tried again. Marie was upset. They all were for different reasons. It was the clash of reasoning that brought on the argument as well as the silence.

Nathaniel could no longer respond. His will had been crushed.

Marie was about to continue but Alice decided it was enough,

"Cora!" she said sternly, finally drawing Marie's surprised and angry attention to her, "Stop. Please."

She was surprised by the trembling in her voice when she pleaded. Marie's expression softened almost immediately.

She jumped when Nathaniel's pained expression was suddenly so close to hers, having taken a secret step towards her.

"They were not strangers, Miss. They stay as they are because by leaving tracks, they'd find us. They'd find _you,"_ the white tracker said softly, calmer now the fire had simmered.

Marie's eyes dropped and without a word, she left. She didn't go far but far enough to be alone. Nathaniel's eyes settled on Alice briefly; he sniffed then turned away. Behind her Chingachgook moved quietly,

"There will be no fire tonight. Let the dead rest."

Uncas simply sat down cross-legged, rummaging through his trusty sling bag for food. Bits of dried fruit and meat were on the proverbial table for dinner that evening. Then he sat and he sat, deep in thought over their day.

Alice watched him a moment. _You're alive, yet._

She turned to go to Marie but a firm hand on her forearm stopped her. She found herself looking into the eyes of Chingachgook, hurt and crestfallen. Eerily similar to the first moment she met him. Her heart swelled as she looked at him.

"Leave her, for now," He said softly, "She cries."

"I know," Alice answered wearily, somewhat offended by Chingachgook's presumption to stop her. She knew her 'sister' better than anyone. This moment was the best of any to find her. Chingachgook must have seen this on Alice's face,

"Let her cry. Now is a moment for reflection."

Alice considered it briefly before asking,

"Who was it?" she recoiled slightly at Chingachgook's sudden return, "Why were we not followed?"

"War party. There's no need to kill us. Only the people in the cabin, only for their fine hides and money. Only easy trade," he sighed heavily, "Only our friends. "

He left her then to sit down next to his son. Duncan sat against a tree looking out of place. Nathaniel sat on a log a few yards away with his shoulders heaving.

Alice just stood, unsure of what to do. What to do with her hands, where to sit, what to say, how to say it. She was unsure, even, of what to do with the memories in her head. Life was so easily trampled there. She became more aware of her weaknesses, frighteningly aware. Frightened to a point where she convinced herself that she wouldn't survive out there on her own. She didn't belong there regardless of the feeling of familiarity.

She collapsed onto the ground more than she did sit down. Defeated on the first day, she tried not to cry but she couldn't stop. She managed to keep her sobbing silent as she put her head in her hands but the tears, they would not stop.

Alice hadn't realised she'd fallen asleep until she woke up in the dead of night. Marie was nowhere to be seen, everyone else was as silent as the grave. Above her, the trees leaned in ominously and cast shadows on the ground that looked like terrifying creatures. Ahead, soft voices could be heard amongst the gentle tread of footsteps over fallen leaves and sticks. A shuffling sound made in unison as they advanced together.

Alice's dazed state went from dull to high alert. She jolted up right, panic welling up inside of her and she could feel her lungs constrict, making her breathing more of a trial than a luxury.

She placed her hands over own mouth to stem the noise, fearful of giving them away.

The smallest shuffle alerted her to someone coming up behind her. She spun, feeling the scream coming without mercy. Whoever was coming up behind must have known it was coming too for they launched forward and connected with Alice in a painful thud. She fell back, winded once more, her ability to scream disabled, her grunt hindered as the mass so suddenly atop her pressed their hand over her mouth too.

"Shsh," it whispered, a deep baritone whisper as wisps of hair fell across her face and tickled her nose. The wait on her chest and abdomen was stupidly debilitating and yet she dared not move beneath him.

The creepers advancement, Alice could hear as she closed her eyes, was halted suddenly. Hushed and frantic whispers rose into the fray. A repeated 'No' was all Alice could make out other than the fact their enemies were French given the language.

She listened as the voices gradually faded, the rustling of the leaves grew silent and the night stilled once more.

The body on top of hers relaxed and removed his hand from atop hers to lift himself off of her.

Opening her eyes, now adjusted to the darkness, Alice found herself looking up at Uncas once more. The moonlight provided enough light to enhance his cheekbones and his lean frame, other than that, he was a shadow.

She just lay there as he crouched beside her,

"Didn't mean to startle you," He whispered apologetically, studying Alice a moment before settling down beside her.

Whispers proceeded to be thrown back and forth as a plan of action was decided upon. Duncan Hayward appeared to have much and more to say about said plan, tending to disagree with everything.

"We should go now," He urged sternly, under the cover of darkness is the best way to move."

"They obviously know that, too, Major," came Nathaniel's casual answer, "We stay here and move at dawn."

"They could come back," Duncan countered.

Chingachgook answered this time,

"They won't. The Burial ground has kept us safe. It is sacred, no one is to die where the dead already lie."

"But you were prepared too, old Man," Duncan answered the old man almost stubbornly. Chingachgook didn't answer.

"Everyone was prepared. The fact that we shouldn't doesn't mean we won't. We're not moving so sit still and wait," Nathaniel's voice was threateningly soft, "And don't _ever_ speak to my father like that again."

Duncan went silent, Alice imagined him scowling through the darkness, but what was a hateful scowl if no one could see it?

"Alice?" Marie's voice floated to her, a tentative enquiry, "Are you alright?"

Alice shared a glance with Uncas and she felt herself endure a hot flush. _I'm fine. Uncas threw himself on top of me. I couldn't breathe. I'm amazing._

"Yup..." She answered airily, without elaborating, leaving Marie with a loose end.

"Oh..." Marie replied, the surprise of Alice's nonchalance clear in her voice, "Good."

Nobody slept the rest of the night though no one spoke. The uneven breathing was a give-away. Uncas didn't even lie down. He just sat, his closeness to Alice was disconcerting. When he moved, his buckskin legging brushed against her hand and then she would flex it instinctively. _Alive. You're alive._

Dawn broke late, the cloudy morning making its arrival an uncertain affair. Nathaniel asked something of Uncas whilst looking up at the sky in puzzlement. The younger man only shrugged.

Soon enough, the little troupe rose. Duncan appeared to be too moody to talk to anyone but stuck close to Marie. She looked dishevelled and a bit flustered following the previous night's events. Nathaniel looked as ready as anyone while Chingachgook waited patiently by a tree, his forearms resting atop his musket, legs crossed casually.

Uncas remained as he was, neither ready nor unready. He was conveniently in between. It wasn't long before they set off again. Uncas drifted from the group to prowl above them. Consistent in his alertness, careful with his listening. Their came a brief clearing where Uncas caught her eye. They both paused before Uncas went back to his guard and Alice was left to walk on alone.

She watched Chingachgook carefully too. Watched the way he moved, took note of how powerful a man he actually was. Tall, like his son, but bigger boned and a barrelling chest. He was the more typical specimen depicted in books. Noble and of a fine build and decent. A quiet strength emanated from him. The unsung rock of the group.

Not long after, Uncas called for a change-over of positions. As Nathaniel left Cora's side, Chingachgook moved up ahead and Uncas came bounding down the slope. He slipped a little on his way down and all but hurtled into Alice who, on impulse, opened her arms. She caught him but not well and they stumbled with a few giggles and an,

"Ohp!" from Uncas as he tried to save himself, "Sorry, Miss."

"No problem at all," she replied breathlessly, still clutching him even as he gradually began to let go. His skin was warm to her touch, his hands were calloused. She could tell he loved the land he walked on. He respected it. He was free in it.

She recalled her love of English literature, her bed and the confines of intimate gatherings more than the outdoors, parties and general life. She was not so free in this old America. She was lost in it. The difference between this man and her, not only by time but by race, by existence and by general life was too great for her to fathom. She let go of him instantly and moved on.

"Why did you not run, yesterday?" Uncas asked out of the blue, suddenly very close to Alice. She glanced back at him in surprise, "I found my father trying to drag you away. Why?"

"Uhm...pass," she said, embarrassed. She shook her head.

He didn't ask anything else.

"What about you?" she tried. He looked confused,

"What do you mean?"

"Well, tell me about yourself," she tried to sound chirpy but she could hear how her voice sounded; awkward. As awkward as she was feeling.

"What would you like to know?"

Alice thought a moment; how to pry without appearing to be prying.

"Your brother...how are you related?" She felt contented with that, it seemed a safe enough question.

"We're not," Uncas answered promptly, taking Alice aback but it was not without kindness, "My father found him when he was a child. About 10 years before he had me."

"And his mother?"

"You'll have to ask him."

Alice considered it briefly, going so far as to cast her eyes up to Nathaniel before deciding against it.

"Alright," Alice tried again, "What about your mother?"

"Long dead."

Alice frowned; all his responses seemed to lack any kind of sincere emotion, as if avoiding a truth or hiding one.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, "I...can't really imagine-"

"I was too young. I don't remember," Uncas said easily, cutting the pity short so that Alice had nowhere to go.

"Your father then," she said, diverting it, besides, she'd seen his father broken. He had not. An odd position to be in.

"He must have suffered," Alice finished.

"I believe he suffers every day."

Alice took pause,

"Why's that?"

"His people... _my_ people are gone. He watched them all slowly die off. There's only me and him now."

"...how?" Alice found herself to be more perplexed than saddened.

"I don't know."

"Did your father never tell you?"

"He did."

Alice didn't press him. It came clear that this was a truth he was trying to avoid. He didn't want to talk about it so she didn't press him.

"What are you the last of then?"

"The Mohicans."

"Well for that I _am_ sorry. Truly," Alice stopped to look at him, "And I'm sorry about your friends."

Already gazing at her with an unwavering curiosity, Uncas bowed his head in recognition before asking,

"What about your mother?"

Alice tried to think of an answer but none came. Her own mother was fine in a cosy house near a park with a loving husband. This Alice's mother was a mystery. She obviously wasn't in Albany and there was no mention of a mother waiting at the Fort. She didn't know the story. Lying really wasn't an option.

"Pass," she said again, turning away from Uncas, ignoring his own furrowed brow.

"You're interested in my story but you won't tell me yours," He remarked with the smallest amount of conviction, "Why not?"

Alice felt the wind blow against her cheeks, the gentle rustling of leaves and the sure footsteps of Uncas as he treaded lightly behind her. Ahead, the others trekked on quietly. Suddenly Alice felt the swell of memory, a picture as clear as day of an empty forest. There were people ahead, a man behind. It was exactly as it was now only the people in her head had no faces.

"This is my whole life," she offered him instead, taking in her surroundings, "As if I've already lived it."

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 **Don't forget to drop a review. :) Ta!**


	4. Chapter 4

**We slowly burn on with Alice and Uncas finally having a few moments. I've tried to maintain the 'original' Alice persona but I've realised I'm not great at reinterpreting the way the characters worked in the book/movie verse but given the fact that they don't say a lot, in book or movie and I've messed around with their lives etc etc, I figured it's alright to go out on a limb and just imagine them as (potentially) completely different to how we interpreted them in the first place. With me? Hope you're enjoying it.**

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Alice picked up her pace after that. The words had come to her on a whim but they were truer than her life. Or so it seemed.

She was aware that she had stunned the Mohican into silence rather than having run out of conversation. The strange outburst was also a gate way to a conversation she didn't want to have.

She caught up with Marie who was humming softly to herself.

"Alright?" Alice asked, trying to remember the tune. She'd heard it before. It was a folk tale. An old ballad. She didn't bother to find out what.

Marie didn't stop singing but she nodded. She was playing with her necklace. It bothered Alice, the way she could see it spinning. She placed a hand over the bother,

"Stop."

This seemed to snap Marie out of her thoughts,

"What?"

"You're spinning it. The last thing any of us wants is to get thrown into oblivion."

"True," Marie consented, dropping her hand. Alice half expected a quick witted retort but no such thing came of it.

"I was thinking," Marie continued, "Thinking on how this whole thing works. I remember reading the instructions-"

"Instructions?" Alice asked incredulously. Marie nodded impatiently,

"Yes. Instructions. I'm trying to jog my memory as to what it says. I remember reading them but…meh." She shrugged.

"Why didn't you read them properly? Better yet, why did you never keep them?"

Marie smirked,

"Would you have? They're like small print, iTunes agreements."

Alice sighed,

"Fine," Alice paused, taking in the heavy build that was Chingachgook, "They're the last of their kind."

"What?" Marie looked confused, "Who, them?"

She gestured to Chingachgook ahead. He glanced back as if he heard them. Both girls smiled awkwardly at being caught but continued to talk about nothing until he resumed an alertness to the wild outside of them.

"Yes," Alice confirmed finally, "Uncas was telling me. They're Mohican."

"Ah," Marie's face conveyed a revelation, "Traders along the Hudson river. I read about them. They became known as the 'River Indians' because of ancestry being connected to the Hudson River Valley."

She went from revelry to awe,

"I'm looking history in the eye."

Alice had to smile, "Any idea how they died out?"

"None that I remember reading about. I imagine they got killed off by disease and war time."

Alice's sense of content listening to Marie faded almost instantly having been so abruptly reminded that somewhere in the near future past, Uncas would die.

"Anything on 1757, yet? French-Indian wars, perhaps?" Alice offered up snidely but Marie shook her head,

"Obviously." Marie cast her a sly look, "But no. Still can't remember but, trust me Lady, you'll be the first to know."

"Can't have been that big of a deal if no one remembers it."

Her comment earned her a hard look,

"That's the problem all over the world," Marie retorted in an arrogant self-righteousness, "Some truly awful events have been swept under the mat because bigger and supposedly much harsher events have taken place and have outshone, if you will, these smaller ones. But they're no less important. Bad attitude."

"But you can't remember. And what are the chances it involves us? Our luck is _not_ that bad," Alice defended but it wasn't enough, Marie was on the offence.

"Mine is," she gestured to Alice without shame. Alice simply rolled her eyes. She glanced up to see Nathaniel moving swiftly through the forest, his buckskin leggings and earthy, cotton shirt fitting in with the environment.

Alice was so intrigued by the simplicity of blending in, she didn't realise Hayward dropping back.

"We're almost there, Ladies," He assured them, "The old man tells me so."

Alice just looked at him. Marie blinked only once.

"How so?" she challenged, "We're in the middle of nowhere."

"I assure you, Cora, our scout says it's just over the Ridge," He looked upon her kindly, "I understand your frustration but we must be patient."

Alice understood Marie's frustration more than he did. First off, what Ridge? Second off, Hayward obviously wasn't as sure as he claimed to be. He was trying to take control of a situation that was beyond it. Thirdly, Scout?

Alice would have kept quiet. Marie, however, took to arguing her point with the poor man.

Alice slunk away from it. She saw how Chingachgook glanced back with a smile. Nathaniel, above, looked amused. Abandoning his post, he trotted down to her with a lopsided grin,

"Your sister's got a temper."

"She does," Alice agreed- sister still sounded absurd, "She's certainly got more fight than me."

"I wouldn't know, Miss," He shrugged, "Don't know you very well. Your sister, though, she's like me."

"Good or bad?" Alice enquired tentatively, glancing at her new travelling buddy. Nathaniel frowned, turning back to Uncas who was doing tiny circles on occasion to make sure they weren't followed. He stopped and looked at his brother when he was called.

"Miss Cora and I are similar; true or false?"

Uncas nodded slowly,

"True."

Nathaniel grinned,

"Good or bad?"

Uncas' gaze flickered uncertainly between Alice and Nathaniel before answering,

"Neither..."

The duo frowned at him. As a result, the Mohican frowned back and went back to his work.

Nathaniel turned back to Alice,

"A man of many words, my brother is."

Alice smiled,

"Yes well...it was an awkward question I guess."

"Aint nothing awkward about it! Good or bad, it's not your problem."

"Oh yes it is," Alice countered, perhaps a little too harshly. But Nathaniel didn't seem to notice. He chuckled,

"Well I like her."

Alice cast him a sceptical look,

"So you've sorted out your differences..."

"Indeed, we have, Miss," He answered fondly, "And with no small mention of you. Apparently you've always instigated the apology regardless of whether you agree or not?"

Alice blushed but didn't answer, looking away. Nathaniel shrugged,

"Well, I can't say I agree, but it works for making the other person feel pretty bad."

Alice would rather have died. Her eyes shot up to the heavens in disgrace,

"Teaching her a new way of manipulating was not the plan," Alice stressed, "And she was wrong."

"She knows. I didn't say I was any good at being manipulated," He winked, "I got a genuine apology out of her."

"Good," Alice sighed, "So how long until we _do_ reach the Fort?"

"Well it's not over the Ridge because there is none and though 'soon' might be a good word to use tomorrow, it's not a good word today. Your soldier's not a quitter."

"What do you mean?" Alice asked, puzzled.

"He kept badgering me about the war and why we were heading West and not into battle. Then I left so he went for my father. 'Over the ridge' and 'soon' seemed to do the trick."

Alice giggled, allowing herself to feel it briefly fend off the worry before enquiring further into the Mohican background having found a suitable door,

"Why _are_ you heading West?"

"Delaware. Find a woman for Uncas so he can carry on the Mohican tradition."

"Oh," Alice answered flatly, "But if my geography's correct, you're heading, somewhat in the wrong direction..."

"Smart, girl," He chided Alice, provoking a flare of irritation. He was the second man to patronise her.

"Only a day or so behind time though," He finished casually. Alice smiled grimly to herself at the irony of his words. _Try 200+ years behind the time...old man._

"Well thank you," she offered instead.

Nathaniel shook his head,

"Don't thank me. Thank my father for deciding it was the right thing to do. Thank Uncas," He turned to look at his brother again, catching the younger man's eye, "for suggesting it."

""What?" Alice turned back too, "But you were on your way...did you come looking for us?"

Uncas' expression conveyed no answers while Nathaniel turned away with a knowing smile to traipse back up to his father,

"That we did. We'll be at the Fort by tomorrow night, Miss, don't you worry."

Alice gazed after Nathaniel as he retreated back towards the front. She contemplated waiting for Uncas to catch up but decided against it.

888888

The day wore one easily, the air clean and light. The sun moved through the sky with no obstacle until, at last, it came to early evening, dusk beckoning the sun back behind the curtains of night in a final push towards the end of the day.

"The river's not far," Nathaniel announced, dropping his sling bag on the ground carelessly, "If you must go, then take someone with you."

"What if we need to take care of business?" Marie enquired as courteously as she could manage; tight of lip and taught of brow, "If you get my meaning?"

Alice wanted to know the same thing but was too embarrassed to ask. Uncas and his father looked puzzled, Nathaniel smirked,

"Find a nearby tree, Miss. Uncas will be more than happy to accompany you."

He grinned at them both as Uncas rose reluctantly from his seated position near Chingachgook. Alice felt mortified on behalf of her dear 'sister' but Marie thought nothing of it. Instead she returned his amusement with a wry smile,

"I had thought to ask you, Nathaniel. Being the gentleman you are."

Alice tensed and Uncas sank back down to the ground. Nathaniel and Marie stared at each other evenly, daring each other to continue.

Chingachgook broke their silence with a snort, his old smile flashing as he glanced over his shoulder from his rummaging in his bag.

"Let her go." He waved his hand carelessly, "Nobody here is a gentleman. Or a gentle woman."

Then he stole a look at Alice, giving her a once over before concluding,

"Except this one," He added, "A _very_ gentle heart."

Alice felt at a loss,

"How would you know that?"

He turned his attention to her fully, shifting around to look at her properly, crossing his hands over his knees. He narrowed his eyes,

"Just a feeling, Miss Munro. Just a feeling."

Alice didn't want to look at him for too long for Chingachgook's eyes were boring so deeply into hers, she felt as if he were searching her soul for something he might not find. She looked away and at Marie who smiled knowingly at her. It seemed that between her and Chingachgook, there was an agreement. Alice slumped,

"Are you going?"

Marie's smile dropped instantly,

"Yes..." She lifted her hands up in defence, the tiny trinket bouncing about her chest, "I suppose I am."

She turned away without looking back and slunk into the thick of the woods.

"Do you not need to go too, Miss?"

Alice looked down at Uncas. His expression genuine. She might have felt awkward if not for Uncas' lack of amusement.

She shook her head,

"No. I was hoping to go to the river, actually. Just to-"

Uncas got to his feet in one swift movement,

"To what?"

He was tall. Much taller than herself. His height threw her off her train of thought so much that she couldn't remember why. Perhaps just to see it? Perhaps to escape?

"To..." She turned away with the heat of a blush creeping up her cheeks, muttering to herself, "Not sure now."

Uncas followed sturdily behind her.

The river, once reached was beyond beautiful. The sun was gradually descending behind the canopy of trees off to her right and cast a light that was other worldly upon the water as it flowed carelessly down towards the sea.

 _It was so beautiful,_ she thought.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Uncas' words mimicking her thoughts almost to a 'T'.

Alice almost forgot her silent companion was still there. She turned,

"Yes. Breath-taking," she looked around then said it with more depth because it truly did astonish her, "Amazing! I never thought I'd be so taken with the outdoors. It's captivating."

Uncas broke out into a grin,

"You don't fit the outdoors," He commented easily, "But it fits you."

"What do you mean?"

He shrugged. It did seem like a deeply romantic thing to say for someone he'd just met. Then she thought it through,

"Is there's something on my face?"

"There's a lot of something on your face."

Alice groaned, kneeling down to the river, bowing her head to the water.

She felt renewed and refreshed as the crisp, cold water splashed onto her face. Her hands revelled in the lightness of the current and the gentle movement of the water as it made its way around her fingers.

"I was thinking you were bringing on the romance," she mused, smiling at the idea, calmed by the ebb of the water.

"Romance, Miss?" Uncas cocked his head and narrowed his eyes, kneeling down beside her, "There's no romance out here."

She looked at him, feeling a random twang of offence, knowing full well that he wasn't being patronising. Still, she couldn't help but feel as though were she not to defend her claim, she might very well fall under the veil of an invalid school girl. No. No,

"Of course there is," she answered forcefully, "The wilderness can be deeply romantic!"

Uncas frowned but didn't look at her. He seemed confused, thinking hard as if trying desperately to grasp the concept of the wilderness being less harsh and unforgiving as he had always known it to be.

"Ever seen daisies in full bloom in a field? It's sunshine on Earth." Alice smiled warmly at him when he looked at her, proud of her defence.

Uncas returned her smile but shook his head in amusement,

"There are no Daisies here, Miss." He stood up, rubbing a wet hand on his leggings,

"The water's cold today..."

Alice didn't take note, staring blankly at the water. She felt put out by the young man. She felt stupid. When she finally did stand up to go back to the others, she instead found Uncas inching his way into the water. His face contorting this way and that as the water drew higher up the length of his body.

"What are you doing?" Alice cried. Uncas seemed unfazed, focused more on battling the chill of the evening and the water.

"Bathing, Miss."

"But what if we get attacked?"

"We won't," He dared a glance at her, "I promise."

"But..." Alice didn't know what to do and her words failed her.

"You can go back, Miss," He eased himself into the water fully and took a sharp breath in, "If you want. It's not far."

"No but..." _Alice, what's your problem? "_ I'd...rather not," she finished sheepishly.

But Uncas didn't pay her embarrassment any mind. In fact, Alice wasn't even sure he noticed.

"Then be patient, Miss Munro." He ducked below the surface only to come out shining, "Almost done."

Alice issued a huff and plonked herself down, trying to decipher which position was not only best suited to her but what was more appropriate. She settled for cross-legged in the end, her dress seemed to do a good job at hiding any profanities anyway.

She watched, unimpressed, as Uncas proceeded to wash himself. When he noticed Alice's bored expression, he stated again,

"You can go, Miss."

"I can't bloody leave you, now can I?" she snapped, not even sorry for swearing that time around, "It's fine, I'll wait."

Uncas rested his head on a rock, scrutinising her quizzically,

"Why?"

"Why what?" Alice snapped.

"Why can't you leave me? Is it the romance?"

Alice went crimson but he had landed her in a dilemma. The 'romance' wasn't right but then neither was the truth.

"We'll call it that, if you want," she answered faintly.

Uncas eased back with a frown but didn't ask any further questions or elaborate on the joke. Alice's answer, it seemed, was not satisfactory. He emerged from the water in a swift ascension.

He retrieved his cotton shirt and his leggings and put them back on as Alice set her sights on the water, determined not to let her eyes wonder.

"Let us go, Miss," Uncas' voice sounded earnestly from behind her.

Alice got up and turned. Uncas waited for her to arrive at his side, waited for her to overtake him. He never seemed to want to be ahead, Alice noted.

She was about to turn and ask him about it when suddenly he slammed into her, pressing his hand against her mouth. She froze, he froze, everything froze. But nothing happened.

Alice's heart was racing. After a few moments, Alice was released from Uncas' grip but told to keep quiet. Uncas was turning his head this way and that, listening for anything, hearing everything, like an animal. Alice could swear she saw his ears twitching as such.

A whistle was heard, sailing through the leaves to them. Uncas' hand closed tightly around Alice's and started to pull her long at a steady jog. He pulled out a knife. They were stopped when Nathaniel appeared abruptly in front of them. He was startled enough to jerk back at the sight of Uncas' knife point.

"Your sister's been worried sick about you," He told Alice harshly, slowly taking his eyes off the knife's glinting sharpness. Then pointing at his brother,

"We've been followed. I saw you looking around, brother. You're right... someone's out there so keep your head down."

Alice felt all her romantic notions slip from her body, a naked Uncas that was walking about her memory, walked out. She couldn't speak. Uncas looked down at her and said something to his brother but Nathaniel only waved it off.

Just then, Marie burst through the trees, followed closely by Duncan but no Chingachgook.

"Alice!" Marie whispered frantically but said no more.

"Where's Chingachgook?" Alice demanded, her initial instinct kicking in. Uncas gave her a curious look. Nathaniel looked annoyed,

"Don't worry about him."

"No, I-"

But Duncan silenced her,

"The Scout is right, Alice, don't worry about him. He's far more capable than any of us. Dare I say far more so than you."

Alice was shocked by the audacity. Marie gave her a sympathetic look but said nothing. Alice's fear quickly turned to fury. She was about to retort angrily when Uncas put a finger to his lips. For him, Alice obeyed.

Moments passed and though nothing happened, Nathaniel refused to let them move.

"What are we-" Marie started but Duncan yelled loudly in her ear, sending her into a panicked silence as someone flew out of the trees.

Everyone, including Alice, managed to sidestep though Alice was sure she wouldn't have were it not for Uncas.

But Marie received the blow with a grunt. She tumbled into the ground, crying out as she struggled.

Duncan wasted no time in going to her aid while Uncas and Nathaniel were suddenly bombarded by Mohawk men as they ripped and tore through their little band.

Chingachgook was still nowhere to be seen.

Alice dropped to the ground to make herself smaller, wishing she were braver, willing herself to be so but to no avail.

Marie's startled and fearful cries quickly turned to anger as she and Duncan battled the Huron. Duncan was hit with a particularly hard blow to his head and he collapsed, only half conscious, beside Alice. His groans were slow and agonised and Marie was once again, left alone with the Huron.

Alice watched as she was heaved up screaming and hauled away with her arms being yanked behind her back.

Nobody but Alice noticed as gunfire and woops and grunts and yells of fight filled the stillness of the air.

 _Do something, Alice!_

In a moment of clarity, the assailant dragged Marie through a spot of light and his face came clear. The Scout.

Alice leaped to her feet but not before a shot was fired. It missed the devilish man by an inch but it threw him as he stumbled, loosening his grip on Marie long enough for her to lurch away.

She blanched back briefly but kept going despite the sound of a dull click.

The Huron's and indeed the Frontiersman grew confused and panicked as shots were continually fired but from where, nobody knew. It soon became apparent that the ex-scout was the target.

Keeping his head low, he called off his war party and ran. Suddenly all who were there, were gone.

Silence reigned, even as Chingachgook appeared effortlessly from the shadows, musket held aloft, a cut above his eye and a tear in his shirt.

Of all the things that could have been said in that moment; comfort, resolve, worry...

Marie was the first one to speak, horrified and with terror,

"Alice, he took the thing!"

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 **THE THING! So, the necklace is gone. Oh no! Where has it gone? Where has the villain got to and what will Alice do next?!  
Review, if you'd be so kind :)  
Ta!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hellos.  
Apologies for such a long time before an update, I've been busy. I wrote a short story which got shortlisted for a pretty major competition which came as a surprise. So, been working on that too. And uh...life. I must admit, I'm finding this story hard, for some reason. Anyway, on we go.**

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"What?" Alice asked, confused though Marie was clearly growing more and frantic, grasping at her neck, searching the ground.

"Miss Cora!" Chingachgook was trying to get her attention, trying to grab hold of her to look her over, considering he was, but wasn't, firing his musket at her.

Duncan was trying to calm her too but needless to say he was failing. Nathaniel was standing at a distance with an urgency about his person telling them all to keep calm.

Uncas stood still, watching it unfold.

Alice just kept hearing Marie call her name, telling her 'the thing' was gone.

It slowly sunk in, though and horror as plain as anything began to well in the pit of her stomach. Marie was grasping at her neck, but nothing was there.

She stopped suddenly, looking Alice dead in the eye in a crazed fashion. Alice's eyes widened,

"Don't!"

Too late. Marie spun on her heel and took off after their attackers in a blind frenzy.

"No wait!" Alice called, following after her. Then they were all moving.

Cora's were being called out from everyone. Alice was quickly overtaken by Nathaniel and he soon caught Marie with an iron hold wrapped around her arm, pulling her to a reluctant halt,

"The clock! He took my necklace! I need it!" she was saying, struggling against Nathaniel's hold but despite the very real urgency of it, she appeared to have gone temporarily insane in the eyes of the others.

"Calm down, Miss, it's just a necklace!" Nathaniel was stressing.

"We can get you another, Cora, I understand it's precious!" Duncan was trying to bribe the calm.

Chingachgook was muttering away in their mother-tongue, frustrated and utterly finished with the situation – he'd almost killed, she almost killed them, fair's fair. Uncas was looking on in breathless bewilderment, leaning towards Alice,

"Why is that thing more important than your life?"

Alice glanced at him, trying not to act as crazed as Marie but it sure was difficult, what caught in the irony of it actually being the _key_ to their lives and all the rest. They'd have to get it back,

"I – will tell you sometime..." She answered meekly, "Cora."

Marie didn't answer, still struggling,

"Cora Marie!" she tried again, emphasising Marie's 'second' name. Marie stopped abruptly to look at Alice, eyes wide and shoulders heaving. Alice tried her best to keep her voice steady but feared some cracks gave way to her real emotions,

"Stop panicking. It'll be fine."

Marie gazed at Alice, the hysteria visibly retreating from her eyes, enough to have Nathaniel let go of her arm.

"Magua," she said bluntly, still looking at Alice, "The Scout, his name is Magua. He kept going on about 'Magua will kill the Grey Hair, cut out his heart.' 'Magua will put his seed to the knife.' Magua will do this and that."

Her shoulders sagged and it became certain that she'd run no more, having exhausted herself. The men glanced at each other wearily,

"Who's 'Grey Hair'?" Alice asked tentatively but Marie only shrugged as Duncan eased an arm about her shoulders which Marie accepted but wasn't entirely comfortable with.

Nathaniel seemed visibly irked by Duncan's audacity.

"Your father."

All eyes went to Chingachgook who, in the throes of chaos, had gently pieced the puzzle together.

"He was dragging you away, his war party came to kill you both. Why kill strangers while talking about killing somebody else' 'seed'? He has followed you. And he will continue to follow you. We must be careful."

Logic, but it made it no less terrifying a thought.

Alice turned a terrified gaze to Marie who had recomposed herself with an assertive decisiveness. Shrugging Duncan's arm from off her shoulder,

"Well to hell with that."

Nathaniel snorted and looked impressed by her spirit, smirking at Duncan. Alice admired it herself. Marie, with her dark skin and powerful personality, was a force to be reckoned with when crossed. Alice wondered, albeit briefly, whether Magua actually stood a chance against her. But the thought was crushed by the memory of how a good a chance he had only moments ago, foiled only by Chingachgook's impressive aim. Then again, only because Marie had not expected it, was she thrown. Then again, then again, then again. Theories were countless and futile. Marie was Marie. Alice was Alice.

"To hell with that, indeed," Nathaniel agreed, "Let's get on. We'll head North a while, throw the tracks, put a little distance between us and them then push on in the afternoon."

"Now?" Duncan exclaimed, it's dusk, we won't be able to see a thing soon."

Nathaniel looked him over evenly, his smirk gone,

"You're a hard man to please. Just last night you were saying how we _should_ have gone a-running in the night."

"Different circumstances, Sir, call for different plans of action," He answered coldly.

Nathaniel narrowed his eyes but said nothing, stepping aside with a small bow,

"After you, Miss."

Marie gave a tentative glance to Duncan before moving past Nathaniel to follow Chingachgook who had already started up ahead of them. Nathaniel followed shortly after, making sure his expression conveyed how much of an idiot he thought Duncan to be.

Duncan stalked after him moments later, his fists shaking.

Alice found herself alone in the quiet of the growing darkness. The soft sounds of the day changing in accordance with the transition from dusk to night. Different mimes for different times. Unthreatening. Silent. Beautiful. The terror ceased.

"Are you alright?"

Alice jumped at the sound of Uncas' sturdy voice behind her, having completely forgotten he was there.

"I- well, yes. Sorry, I didn't realise you were here."

In shadow, she saw him cock his head and she imagined him frowning in puzzlement. Yes, why would he have left her?

"I suppose we should...go," she muttered awkwardly. As usual, he waited for her to get started before bringing up the rear.

The wilderness was soon engulfed by the darkness as they trekked away from the path. They trekked half a life time, it seemed, until Chingachgook deemed it safe to stop.

They settled in a small incline, hidden from the view of anyone looking across.

Alice just about collapsed from exhaustion but her mind raced on. All her thoughts dwelling on the lost trinket. Nathaniel had somehow managed to calm Marie's nerves and now they lay close to each other, murmuring amongst themselves.

Duncan had resigned himself to a small amount of self-induced isolation. Infuriated by Nathaniel and neglected by Marie. A man-child that led an army; Alice made a mental note to talk to Marie about it.

Chingachgook lay himself down with his back to them all. His breathing even but still noticeably awake.

Uncas, having decidedly taken first watch, sat near Alice with his back to tree, arms folded over his musket, legs outstretched and crossed at the ankle. As a shadow, one could almost mistake him for sleeping too comfortably.

His shoulders gave him away, rigid and as still as a millpond. His keen eyes pierced the night and sent shivers down Alice's spine every time she sensed him looking at her.

His glances were growing more and more frequent, she had noticed. But so were her own.

The knowledge of that safe in mind, Alice had devised a plan.

She waited until the murmuring had quietened down and all breathing had deepened and evened to a steady in and out.

The hush of the woods in the night-time was entirely alien to Alice but enthralling. There was a certain magic that seemed to come with the silence.

But her time was now.

Alice sat up and looked over to Uncas. Not entirely surprised to find him already eyeing her up and down, she shimmied over to him,

"Hope you don't mind."

"Why are you still awake, Miss? Try get some sleep. We've had a long day, tomorrow will be no different."

"I know," she answered sheepishly, "It's...I can't. I'm afraid the –"

"Wild doesn't suit you," He sounded amused, recalling their previous conversation, "No. But you look pretty in it anyhow."

Alice wasn't sure how to respond.

"Try to sleep, Miss." He urged her.

She took a deep breath. Steadying her voice, she mustered enough courage to sound forceful,

"I need to get that necklace back."

Uncas sighed,

"Let it go, Miss."

"No," she answered defiantly, "We have too!"

"Is it more important than your life?"

She felt his eyes bore into her, daring her to tell him 'yes'. But Alice was on a defiant roll, fearless,

"Just as."

He paused, gauging her response,

"No."

She slumped. Not that she actually wanted a sparring competition but she had expected more than that.

She geared herself up again.

"Fine," she countered stubbornly, standing abruptly, "Then I'll go alone. Just come and get me when things go awry."

"Miss?" He whispered after her as Alice marched away, hoping to high heaven that he'd agree to come if only to protect her from her own foolishness. And she _was_ being foolish, she knew that, "Alice?"

Alice felt an iron hold wrap itself around her arm making her wheel around into the arms of the Mohican,

"You're a stubborn one, aren't you…"

She yanked her arm free of his grip, scowling at him. They'd landed in a spot where the moonlight managed to peep through the canopy. It cast Uncas' high face in an angelic hue, his eyes dancing in a playful amusement which Alice did not expect.

"Not unlike your sister...who would have thought?" He mused.

Alice took a step back, becoming flustered with the proximity.

"Quite the contrary. I'm nothing like her but this is important."

He said nothing. Alice shifted impatiently,

"Are you going to help me or not?"

The young chief's glanced back over his shoulder at their sleeping companions before returning his gaze to her,

"Alright," He nodded, Alice's heart simultaneously soaring and beginning to pump itself out of her chest, "But you do _everything_ I say."

Alice nodded obediently. In return, Uncas nodded at her and gestured for her to follow him, readying his musket and lowering his stance. He bent his knees and put his head down and began to stalk through the forest. Alice followed, though with less slight of foot and more like the hunted than the hunter.

Uncas was more alert than Alice had ever seen him. He moved lightly through the trees like a ghost. In a sly trick of the light, Uncas glanced back at her just so and she swore he was grinning.

 _He's enjoying this!_ She thought incredulously, following his every move, _shaking in my boots, I've asked for help from a masochis_ t!

But it could have been the light for no sooner had she decided upon it being a grin, he turned away. The ghost of joy or whatever it was, evidently gone and leaving no trace.

They reached the outskirts of a firelight camp, their main man Magua looking out at them over the fire, only without seeing them as the braves chatted amongst themselves, passing around what Alice assumed to be a whiskey bottle. Magua looked glazed, starry eyed and angry but near collapse. Uncas peered through the bushes at them, sniffing, like an animal and taking in every little detail before turning to her,

"Do you see it?"

Alice scanned the group, the ground, the packs, Magua but couldn't see it. She shook her head,

"No."

Uncas hmm'd to himself before taking her hand and guiding her around the camp to take a look from the other side.

"Now?"

Alice scanned the vicinity again. She almost clapped when she finally did see it, hanging loosely from Magua's belt.

"There," she pointed, "On his waist!"

Uncas looked put out by the revelation but nodded, his eyes resting on certain points more so than on others. Silent. Alice began to tremble, fear catching up with her.

"I'll go down when they've passed out and try to get it back. Shouldn't be long."

He settled down to wait, clearing a small part of a bush for him to peer through without standing up. Alice looked down at him, perturbed,

"Not now?"

"No, Alice, not now. Wait for them to sleep."

"We could be here for hours!"

Uncas shook his head,

"Don't think so. They've drank a lot."

"So just go in and take it if they're that drunk."

She sat down beside him, shivering and her eyes wild with worry. Uncas, recognising her fear, smiled reassuringly at her,

"You're smarter than that. Calm your fears, Miss," He leant forward, "We'll be alright. Besides, it was your idea."

Alice managed to scowl at him through her worry but it only amused him.

Soon, one by one, the braves began dropping off to sleep, slumping this way and that as the drink finally got the best of them. Magua was the last one to go, managing to arrange himself comfortably but clumsily before sleep finally took him.

Uncas waited another moment before he made his move, bringing himself to his feet quietly.

"Stay here." He told Alice quietly without looking at her, gently pulling his hand, which she didn't realise she'd taken hold of, from out her rigid grasp.

She watched with bated breath as the young man crept down into full view of the firelight, the light throwing his shadow long and lithe across the bodies of the sleeping Huron.

He knelt slowly to Magua's belt, fondling the trinket gently as he tried to loosen it but Alice could see he was struggling. Unsure of how to get it loose, he abandoned it and darted from the camp back to Alice. He slumped beside her breathlessly.

"I couldn't undo it." He looked at Alice who was gazing back at him with wide eyes, "I don't know what to do."

Alice continue to stare at him. Fearful, unwilling to leave as Uncas might suggest, unwilling to stay as Uncas might protest.

"I'll go, then," she said suddenly, unable to believe the words falling from her mouth, stronger than she had anticipated, "I can be quick."

Uncas looked reluctant. He glanced down to the camp, up at the sky then back at Alice before finally conceding,

"I'll come to the edge of the camp with you. If anything happens, fall to the ground."

"Then what?"

By way of answer, Uncas got to his feet and raised his musket, urging Alice forward.

They scuttled down to the outskirts where Alice stalled. She looked back to him for reassurance to find him having crouched and already aiming at Magua. He caught her eye and lowered his musket instantly upon seeing her bewilderment.

He didn't say anything, he merely cocked his head (as he so often did) and gave her an endearing smile. Waiting patiently for her to try her luck.

There was a small comfort in the knowledge that the moment she turned her back, Uncas would raise his musket with a keen eye for blood shed the moment it became necessary. So she did.

She took a cautious step out into the open, taking the smallest steps towards the sleeping man before kneeling to his belt.

It seemed easy enough, it was a screw on. All she had to do was unscrew the latch and slide it out from the belt. She set to work, her fingers unusually clumsy as she undid it. She just about had it when Magua's hand flew out of nowhere and caught hold of her wrist, the iron bar fingers tightening on her skin, twisting the flesh. Alice let out a yelp of fearful surprise and no small amount of pain as her skin twisted, pressing a startled palm to her mouth to stifle the noise.

Magua sat bolt upright, looking her in the eye. His own eyes were clouded, deep, black pools that harboured many a painful story that resulted in a very big pile of hate. He'd kill her in an instant! Panicked, Alice suddenly remembered what Uncas had told her to do but was crushed upon realising that Magua was still on the ground, what good would it do?

 _Oh fuck!_

But Magua did no more than look at her in a daze, the alertness slowly fading. No one else woke up. A few stirred in their drunken dreams but nothing else.

Alice looked to Uncas for help, unsure of what was happening but he, too, seemed befuddled. Having already taken one agitated step towards her, he was focused on Magua's grip.

Alice returned her attention to the Huron, trying desperately to work out what was to happen next.

To her surprise, Magua's death hold slackened and he began to sink back down to the ground. Eyes drooping as he descended, the last of his vision fading with Alice looking down at him in terror.

Moments passed, her wrist free of his hand - but not of the angry, red marks they left - and Magua's breathing seeming to have deepened; Alice bolted.

She shot past Uncas, clutching the necklace tightly with tears of dread and relief seeping down her chilled, rosy cheeks.

She stopped, what felt like, miles away. Dropping to her knees to sob. Never had she been so terrified. Behind her, Uncas' footsteps came up carefully. Having followed her into the dark.

He knelt beside her, draping a comforting arm around her shoulders and pulling her to him.

She calmed easily with his chin atop her head and her ear pressed to his chest, listening to the sound of his heart like a steady beating drum.

 **0000oooo00o0o0o0o0o0o**

When they returned to their little camp, nothing seemed amiss, like no one had woken up.

 _Well, why should they have?_ Alice asked herself, trying to reassure herself but truth be told, she'd be more surprised if no one had _indeed_ not woken up. _Because Chingachgook, that's why._

The man, in Alice's books, had come to gain a reputation of being aware of everything. Eyes at the back of his head and what not.

Uncas waited for Alice to settle before waking his father to do the second watch.

Words were exchanged in whispers and a low husky chuckle erupted and then was silenced. Alice felt Uncas settle down beside her, perhaps a little too close for her overbearing sense of propriety.

Moments later, she felt his breath in her ear, sending shivers down her spine,

"My father knows," He told her, making Alice freeze, "He says we were brave. Stupid and foolish...but brave."

Alice turned her head to look at the young Mohican, his eyes flashing the familiar amusement without showing it on his lips.

A sudden giggle bubbled up and Alice felt her body spasm with its momentary freedom. She ran a hand over her face before focusing on him again.

She squeezed his arm by way of thanks and turned back around.

Blow her down, if he didn't shift ever so slightly closer to her.

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave a review. :)**

 **BYE!**


	6. Chapter 6

Alice woke with a start. Having dreamed that the necklace trinket she'd only just re-acquired was taken from her again, Alice's eyes shot open and her hands had closed around her own throat.

The dread was relieved when she found that it was indeed around her neck and that their daring escapade the night before was real.

She breathed out deeply, shutting her eyes again to revel in the relief only to have a shadow fall upon her.

Alice opened her eyes reluctantly to find Marie standing over with a peculiar expression on her face,

"Nice necklace, where'd you get it?"

Alice sat up, confused by such an early confrontation. Marie didn't look angry either...it seemed like an innocent enquiry if not for the folded arms and rigid stance.

Marie's body was portraying disapproval, her face seemed to be a mixture of awe and, if Alice squinted, puzzlement.

She rubbed her eyes,

"I...stole it back?"

"Yeah but how?" Marie plopped down, her legs crossed beneath her endless layers of dress.

Alice recoiled slightly, unsure of Marie's intentions. She glanced around.

The others were slowly gathering their things, it was early still, the sun beyond dawn but still lazily hoisting itself up into the sky. A wave of exhaustion came to her then and she would have given her soul for a bed.

Instead she recounted her adventure with Uncas to Marie who sat quite still through the whole of it.

In conclusion, all she did was hold out her hand and wait for Alice to give the trinket back to her.

Alice tentatively did so, careful not to touch her skin as she dropped the chained clock into Marie's palm.

Marie proceeded to put it back around her neck before looking Alice over plaintively,

"People say I'm the crazy one." she mused aloud before getting up with a huff, "Chick, you're insane."

She never mentioned the ordeal again. It would seem that Marie was absurdly perplexed by Alice's rash plan of action. Unable to get her head around it, she moved to stand by Nathaniel who was looking at Alice with an impressed smirk. She gazed off into the unknown with her arms crossed and back to Alice, responding curtly to Nathaniel when he said something to her.

Uncas was gone.

Alice stood up with the help of Duncan,

"Don't do that again, Miss," He told her sternly, "Please."

Alice looked at him incredulously.

"It's dangerous. You don't know these woods, Alice! You should have left it to these men," gesturing to Chingachgook and Nathaniel, "to get it back."

Alice, in a moment of staunch defiance of being babied, retorted a little too irritably for her taste,

"And they did...with me in tow."

Duncan frowned but could not protest the truth. Instead he took her shoulders gently,

"It is of the utmost importance – to me at the very least – to get you women to your father safely. How can I do that if you, of all people, go gallivanting into the darkness to fetch back useless jewellery and do God knows what with the likes of the Red Men!"

Alice's jaw dropped.

"I say this with only in the best intentions in mind, Alice," He said kindly.

Alice glanced over at Marie who was frowning back at her, clearly trying to decipher what was being said.

"Alice?" Duncan drew back her attention, "Do you understand?"

Alice's mouth opened and closed several times without success over what to say in return.

From behind them an enormous sigh came and Chingachgook marched over to them. His features hard as stone,

"It was foolish what you did child. Brave but stupid. Next time, don't just take my son. Tell me."

This, Alice could not rebuke. She bowed her head, acknowledging a worried father, painfully remembering the aftermath of the last worry he'd ever had when she first encountered him.

"As for you," Chingachgook turned an even harder look to Duncan. His hands dropped from Alice's shoulders as he adjusted to look Chingachgook in the eye.

He was shorter than the old Indian, much to Alice's appreciation, but not by a lot.

"The girl can look after herself and if she chooses to acquaint herself with our people, then so be it. That is of no real concern of yours. Keep your overbearing, white man, superiority to yourself."

Duncan looked wounded,

"She is my concern-"

"No," Chingachgook shot back easily, his voice never rising an inch giving him the air of the upper hand, "The sister is your concern. She's the one you want, no? So leave this one. I wish Miss Cora luck."

"How dare you, Sir!" Duncan was trembling with fury, Alice could see. She took a step back carefully.

Chingachgook didn't look back at him, marching away with purpose, his hackles raised just as high, if not higher, than Duncan's. After all, Duncan had insulted not only him but the entire nation.

Duncan was about to go out on a tangent when Marie arrived by his side, gentle and tender, she layed a hand on his forearm,

"Shshsh," she whispered, "You made a mistake."

Alice gaped at her. She'd never seen her friend speak so softly and here she was testing the damn waters with the likes of Duncan bloody Hayward.

He looked at her and visibly eased. His shoulders dropped and he took a deep breath,

"Yes..I...yes," He answered, shame appearing on his features.

"Don't worry," Marie smiled, "You've been good to Alice but she's grown now. Just...look out for me, like Chingachgook said. At the rate I'm going, I'll need more protecting than her anyway."

Alice was amazed.

Duncan cast her a sheepish glance, rewarding Marie's efforts with a small smile,

"Yes, you're right. I apologise."

He turned to Chingachgook and called to him,

"I'm sorry for my carelessness, Sir. It was most uncouth and you were undeserving of it."

Chingachgook gave an awkward nod but no more. Nathaniel's smile had drooped slightly. Alice suspected it wasn't because of the exchange between his father and Duncan.

"Right," Marie concluded.

Before she could say anymore, Uncas returned looking hot and sweaty, blood smeared across his right cheek,

"They've picked up our tracks. They know it's us who got the necklace back." He cast a worried glance towards Alice.

Alice, still lost for words, looked back at Chingachgook, having found a pillar in him that she had failed to see before. A tower of fierce leadership that enveloped everybody and that reigned supreme long after the masses had fallen.

"How many?" father asked son.

"I managed to kill two of 'em. Magua wasn't one of them. Won't be long till they're on our tails."

He was looking at Alice with urgency but what was to be done was lost to Alice. She past on the urgency to Chingachgook who was considering his son quizzically,

"We split up," He said finally, "Take young Miss Munro, Uncas. Hawkeye, take Miss Cora."

He turned to Duncan who, amidst the mounting worry, had the decency to look shy,

"You're with me," Chingachgook said sternly as if to a child, "Go our separate ways and meet at the lake of the Fort. We'll cross together. _Nobody,"_ He glanced around, looking at each and every one of them, "crosses that lake until we're altogether."

Silence fell upon them. Considering the weight of gauging the danger for those they couldn't see.

Alice glanced at Uncas who caught her eye and took her hand with an iron hold, then nodded affirmatively at his father.

A whoop came from not far off and startled them all into motion. Chingachgook made as if to shoo them away,

"Go!"

He simply turned on his heel, shoving Duncan forward, leaving them.

Commotion; Hawkeye called,

"Uncas, which way?"

Uncas, moving already with Alice stumbling after him, pointed in his chosen direction.

Alice, taking a last, hesitant glance at Marie just she had done the same but she was gone before Alice could spare a scared smile, Hawkeye following her instead of the other way around. Sure footed with a smooth escape, Nathaniel and Marie disappeared into the wild.

Alice wished, once again, she could show Uncas she could run without his guidance but she daren't let go.

Much to her dismay, they were soon hiking up a hill. She tired quickly but wasn't about to show her exhaustion. Uncas, on the other hand, seemed to fly up the slanted land without so much as a sweat.

In an abrupt moment of confusion, Alice did stop but only because Uncas did and he was merely deciding which way to go. He and Alice, as a result, collided.

"Ow!" Alice cried as Uncas stepped on her foot, disabling her retreat and causing her to fall, "The fff...what are we doing?"

But Uncas had his finger to his lips, clutching her hands, tugging her arms, urging her to hoist herself up,

"Come, come, come – be quick, they're coming!"

"Where are they?" Alice asked, finally obeying as she was tugged to her feet.

"Down there," Uncas pointed, "Now run!"

Alice gasped as Uncas dragged her on without giving her a chance to see their pursuers. They were on their way down again and Alice went from having too many feet to no feet at all, all but rolling down the hill. From a far, gunshots rang out which gave Uncas a brief but hesitant pause.

Alice's heart was pounding.

Before long, Uncas stopped dead and took Alice wholly in his arms as she stumbled into him,

"We should hide," He breathed, "Can't run forever."

"We aren't!" Alice protested, "How far's the lake? And what about Marie-Cora whoever – whatever- and -and-"

"It's further away than you can run, Alice!" He countered, looking around frantically. More gunshots clattering through the air. The sound of approaching danger coming in the sounds of their surroundings. Disrupted, uncertain – a flutter of leaves and snapping of twigs both near and far.

"I can run!" She defended.

"You can," He looked at her, sparing her courage a soft gaze, "Just not fast."

Alice, unfortunately, saw the truth in that.

"You should have taken my sister," she said gloomily despite their danger but Uncas found it in him to stand still a moment.

"I prefer you," He smiled.

She clutched his elbows, looking up at him, trusting him with all of her being,

"Alright," she nodded, "I'm slow. Where do we hide?"

He grinned and for half a stunned instant Alice thought he meant to kiss her.

He didn't.

He pulled her into the trunk of a tree, tucked her in first for it was a mighty big tree on an incline at the foot of their hill. Easily missed but she trusted him with his sharp, sharp eyes.

He climbed in beside her, giving her a solid stare before turning his attention, perhaps – if Alice truly pretended - to watch the world go by.

Alice had to imagine it so. Death was about to stalk past them. With a bit of luck, it would miss them.

Uncas. She shut her eyes. He was strong, quiet, unassuming and gentle. He was borderline Goddamn perfect. He had the patience of a saint too, what with Alice's inadequacy when faced with the wild and the threats that accompanied it.

These men, they weren't coming for the necklace, she had to remind herself every time she thought to give it up. They wanted her and Marie dead. Or...Alice and Cora, wherever they were. That, and then she'd be reminded that she couldn't very well give up the bloody thing anyway.

Then Magua and his braves were on them. Only three of them.

Alice frowned, then remembered the gunshots. They had obviously fanned out across the forest in anticipation of trickery. She felt Uncas stiffen almost to a point without breathing whereas she was doing everything she could not to startle and spontaneously combust.

She didn't understand what they were saying but she understood enough to realise that one man had been instructed to check everything, everywhere and here came he; scowling and stoic. Fierce in his advances to where Uncas and Alice hid without realising that they were actually there.

Uncas cast her a look of warning. He was going to do something that would seem like madness. If Alice knew what she might have prepared herself better.

The brave twisted long fingers over the shrubbery that hid them away, paused, then yanked it back.

Uncas launched forward, shouldering the man to the ground. In her surprise (and panic), Alice fell out of their hovel following Uncas' improvised attack.

In a matter of moments, the young Chief bested the Huron and moved on to his next opponent.

Alice froze, watching in terror as Uncas stood between her and a perilous end. It was so clear that they didn't give one shit about Uncas. It didn't even matter if they killed him or not – just as long as a knife made it to her throat too. It was frightening beyond anything Alice had ever known.

Sometimes Uncas was shoved aside and Alice held her breath in anticipation as their assailant surged forward, tomahawk held aloft and glinting in the dim light. But that would only last a moment, for Uncas would yank him back. It would seem that Uncas just couldn't best them all, not three men. The best he could do was simply stand in between them and her.

The realisation hit her quite hard even amidst the chaos. _He could die!_

 _He could die for me!_

"Bugger... what do I do?" she muttered frantically before deciding that removing herself from harms way was the best course.

"Uncas, we're running!" she called abruptly, launching to her feet and simply taking off.

Daring a glance back, she saw Uncas throw one man to the ground, cut open another and only just managing to shove the last away before following Alice, almost losing his footing as he raced after her.

He got to her soon enough, reaching for her hand, blood seeping from a cut above his eye and on his wrist.

In the knowledge that he fought them in an effort to keep her safe, she tightened her hold on him, feeling his clasp reciprocate her urgency, her need to protect.

Soon they had outrun them and silence save for the chirping of the wildlife swept over them. He was still clutching her hand but she could feel the sweat mingled with the blood making their hands sticky and, Alice regretted to note, gross.

"What now?" she asked after a time as he turned his head this way and that, listening. When he finally looked at her, Alice forgot her question and instantly layed a hand to his brow,

"My God, that's deep. Are you alright?"

He seemed to lean into her touch,

"Yes, Miss. Are you?"

"Yes...I...Yes," still trying to clean the cut with the sleeve of her dress, she became worried at how it wouldn't stop, "I'm sorry I ran. I couldn't think of what else to do and you were...struggling."

"Thank you for doing so, you did the right thing," he answered softly, much to her surprise only to furrow his brow, increasing the blood flow from out his cut, "You're not doing much except getting blood on your dress, Miss."

She blinked at him, _when did he decide to return to formalities?_

"Better that than all over your lovely face." And there went _her_ formalities. She froze.

"I didn't mean that. I did mean that but I didn't mean-"

Uncas just looked at her. Her face grew flush and heated under his scrutiny.

"Thank you," He answered lightly, ending the awkward chirping Alice had embarked on.

Gauging his response, she replied tentatively,

"You're welcome."

8888888i

They marched on for hours, Alice's legs grew sore and each breath grew strained but Uncas wouldn't stop and though he looked back at her in concern, Alice waved him off with a small smile. Too scared to talk lest he see her ailment.

Every now and again Uncas would stop but not for rest. The forest would have irked him and he'd double back, pulling Alice along with him.

Finally, unable to hold her silence and feeling confident enough to speak, Alice dared to ask,

"Where do you think they are?"

"I don't know but we'll head to the Fort. We'll meet them there as planned."

He was focused, his brow furrowed deeply but not uncertain and the cut, to her relief, seemed to have clotted. Alice had no choice but to trust his judgement but felt it quite easy anyhow. He'd saved her life anyhow, no?

The day began to fade with a lazy light that died quickly. Ahead, the clearing fanned out into an eerie darkness, the ground seeming to drop out from beneath the roots of the trees, save for a spurt of light preceded by dull explosions. As they drew closer to the forests edge, the light grew along the skyline until Alice realised it was no mere trick of the night. Across the blackness, the land ahead was on fire.

The sounds came clear and war carried across the gloom to them. Alice stopped dead, her heartbeat escalating.

' _Holy shit! The Fort!'_

Uncas, still ahead, hurried back to her from the edge, grasping her hand,

"Found them. They're waiting – come!"

Alice didn't move. Her eyes were glued to the chaos ahead. Her sight was suddenly obstructed by Uncas placing himself right in front of her. She jumped at the change, shaking in his hold as he let go of her hand and grasped her arms instead.

"Alice, we can't stay here. We must go."

"We can't stay there, either!" she breathed frantically, "It's alight! Is that the Fort?"

"It's a lose-lose, I know. But don't worry, Alice," He took her hand in his again, tightly, a firm grip with a gaze of steel, "I'll keep you safe."

Alice felt herself calm at his words, her breathing began to steady.

"Alright..." She said quietly, "Alright."

He nodded reassuringly at her, beginning a slow walk towards the clearing.

Once clear and Alice felt less paralysed, he moved faster. Turning from her with her hand still in his,

"Come, come!"

Below, Nathaniel and Chingachgook were readying a canoe.

"Can't get luckier than this," Nathaniel was saying as they heaved the canoe into the gaping blackness Alice came to realise was a lake.

"Can't we go around? This seems a little...dangerous," Marie answered uncertainly but Nathaniel shook his head,

"Looking up the hill, Miss. What do you see? Look _real_ hard."

Marie caught sight of Alice on her way round to looking up the hill at Nathaniel's word. She offered a brief smile but no more.

Alice did the same, following Nathaniel's gaze. Above them, much to Alice's terror, were the men she and Uncas (and indeed the rest of them) were running from. Skulking down the forest edge towards them.

"I don't see anything," Marie countered but everyone else did and watched them approach quietly until at last she faltered, "Oh fff-fiddlesticks…"

"Right," Chingachgook declared abruptly, "In. Now."

Alice felt confused as to what to do until Uncas gently urged her into the canoe. Climbing in, she heard Marie, having gotten in before her, mutter in exasperation,

"Fucking hell."

Alice hadn't noticed Hayward for a while for he was standing silently off to the side of the group.

He, like the other men, waded into the depths, catching Alice's eye as he did so. He was stoic with a rigid face but she could see his uncertainty. _He didn't know!_ Alice realised. The attack on the Fort was a surprise to them all, it seemed.

"Marie?" she whispered.

""Yeah?"

"Nobody knew about the Fort. Not even Duncan."

Marie was silent. Alice felt her shift slightly to look back,

"No, he said as much."

"What do we do now, then?" Alice whispered frantically.

"Stick to the plan. If there's no 'father' to meet then all the better for it."

Alice's heart constricted. _But Chingachgook...but...Uncas._

"You sure?"

Marie didn't answer immediately. She exhaled with a long sigh filled with longing,

"No, not at all."

88888

Alice was listening to the drums, the thrums, the rage of the clashes when a firm hand planted itself on her back,

"Let's go, Miss."

Uncas was helping her out of the canoe while Duncan assisted Marie. Chingachgook was already on the go, glancing back at his sons and finding Alice instead.

She faltered briefly under his gaze. However, he gave her a reassuring look that was similar to that of Uncas and she eased in its comfort. Alice felt her hand be grasped again.

She realised then that they were all lined up like children waiting for instructions from Chingachgook who wasn't aware he had to give any so all that fell out of his mouth as he turned to go was a quick,

"Run!"

Run they did. Uncas and Alice, Marie and Nathaniel and Duncan bringing up the rear. As they made it over the hillock and into the thick of it, the night exploded.

They were running blind. Alice ran with the entirety of her existence in the hands of the young Mohican now leading her on. Behind her, Marie was breathing hard but she was a faster runner and soon the little group was no longer running single file.

Duncan started calling out to the men atop the blockade, something about British reinforcements, Major, Munro this, that and whatever. Much to their relief, the gate began to open in a slow and uncertain manner. The wood creaking as it endured the effort. They ploughed through it without much thought.

On his way through, Uncas got caught on a piece of the wood that stuck out of the door. It splintered deep. He let out a bark of pain and let go of Alice's hand.

Chingachgook spun round in an obvious fear, eyes wide and musket ready only to find his son trying to free himself from the gate.

"Child!" the old Indian yelled angrily, "Watch your feet, get loose and close the gate!"

Uncas threw him an agitated scowl, a beaded sweat on his brow that mingled with dried blood that was already there, as he tried wriggle his shirt free of the catch. As a result, the bloody remanence began to seep down his face.

Alice glanced back at her companions, at Marie before moving forward. Slapping Uncas' hands away,

"For God's sake!" she muttered while soldiers fluttered about them. She took hold of his shirt and began manoeuvring it accordingly until at last it did come free and Uncas stepped away from the madness. The gate was instantly heaved shut and the majority of the horror was locked out.

He was clutching his side, Alice noticed. Between his fingers, his blood began to seep out and spoil the green of his shirt. The earthiness staining into a muddy brown.

"Children!" Chingachgook called again, not angrily but not calm. His agitation was understandable but Alice still felt ashamedly put out by his sternness. She took Uncas' hand in confidence and pulled him on with her to follow the others into the heart of the Fort.

Inside, the absence of chaos was stunning. There was no screaming. No loud explosions. Nothing that had them tense around every corner.

Hayward had asserted himself, having asked another soldier where Colonel Munro was, leading them through the halls as directed by the informant to the girls' 'father'.

Marie slowed, shying away from Hayward and Nathaniel to drop back to Alice,

"Here we go. Remember the plan."

Alice jerked her head towards her friend, her grip on Uncas' hand tightening instinctively,

"But that's-"

"Let go of his hand!" she commanded sternly without giving Alice a chance. Within reason, though, as Hayward came to a door, glanced back and proceeded to open it without hesitation and no lack of exasperation.

Inside, a stout man, with a hard face who had been pouring over maps and plans, looked up and froze. His eyes slowly widened as he straightened.

Marie cast Alice a warning glance, gripping her other hand.

Munro took a few tentative steps towards them before rushing forward, embracing them in a fierce hold.

Alice was stupefied – he looked so like her father back home.


	7. Chapter 7

**I appreciate reviews and I'm so glad to have seen Wayward-Owl writing again. She may not see this but good vibes going that way.  
Thanks Team.**

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When Colonel Munro took a step away from them, his face, though stern still managed to convey the softness of a father's worry and love.

"Why did you disobey me, girls?" He asked desperately, his fingers digging into the soft flesh of Alice's arms, "Why are you here?"

"Well...I...uhm..." Marie tried while Alice's words got stuck in her throat, "Help?"

She looked at Duncan who looked just as confused as Munro turned his stony gaze to the major.

"You gave me instructions to bring them to you, Colonel, as soon as they arrived!"

"Did you not get my letter, Hayward?" Munro demanded.

"What letter?" Hayward frowned. He glanced at Marie but she shrugged at a loss.

"There was no such letter, Sir," He continued.

Munro shook his head,

"I sent it with confidence in the hands of one of my Mohawk Scouts! Mmm...ma...something," He scrunched up his eyes trying to remember, pinching the ridge of his nose.

"Magua?" Marie stepped forward with her eyes narrowed.

"Yes!" Munro cried, gesturing madly at her before turning back to Hayward, "Why did he not get it to you, I wonder..."

"He's been trying to kill me and yours since the day we left," Hayward said bluntly, "And he's not a Mohawk. He's..."

He stalled, glancing back at the Frontiersmen who stood quietly at the back,

"What did you say he was?"

"Huron," Nathaniel answered, rubbing grit from his face, "He's got something against you, it seems. Wants your children dead."

Munro straightened in dismay, eyes wide, skin paling,

"That two-faced swine! You," He pointed at Hayward, "You swear to me you never left my children!"

"Yes, Sir," Hayward answered, squaring up to the shorter man, "I saw them arrive and I haven't left them since. They've been acting a bit odd but I put that down to the trauma of the new world."

Munro sighed, dropping his finger and turning back to his children,

"I suppose I should thank you then."

Hayward bowed his head.

"The call for reinforcements never reached Webb..." Munro continued sullenly.

Hayward went silent a moment,

"No."

"Damn," the Colonel cursed, "Damn, damn."

He walked back to his desk, a little heavier of shoulder, leaning over his battle plans,

"I suppose you didn't get here alone," He offered up instead, his eyes peering over Marie and Alice's shoulder, "To whom do I owe more of my thanks?"

"Nathaniel," he answered steadily, pointing at himself first before moving down the line, "My brother, Uncas and my father, Chingachgook."

"I'm indebted to you. What can I offer as thanks?"

"We'll need some ammunition, if that'll be alright? A bed for the night. We'll be on our way in the morning."

"Of course," Munro conceded.

"And food," Uncas added, glancing at his brother irritably.

"Yes, Sir." Munro glanced back down at his plans, and to no one in particular, he said,

"Albany's a long way. Montcalm would have us hanged by then."

"If you're referring to Webb, he's not in Albany," Hayward corrected, fervour anew, "He marched a garrison to Fort Edward two days ago!"

Munro jerked his head up,

"For certain?"

Hayward nodded only once and sharply.

"We need a runner to get the message there," He stated boldly, "A fast one. If we can get the message to him, he could have his men here within a day!"

"There are a couple of men here who can make the run. Good, fast men, all we'd need to do is spot for them. Make sure they make the clearing safely," Nathaniel offered. Munro was quick to take the opportunity,

"Pick your man, Sir. They leave tonight. Report them to me within the hour!"

"As you wish." Nathaniel cast Marie a glance with half a raised eyebrow. When Alice caught Marie's eye, her friend had gone pale. A sickly clamminess that took over her dark skin, a cold sweat evident above her brow.

Alice watched Uncas' retreating back before mouthing,

"Are you alright?"

Marie shook her head vigorously.

"Girls," Munro grabbed their attention, hesitating upon seeing Marie's face, "Cora, are you quite well, Lass?"

Marie couldn't speak but nodded meekly, portraying her best 'everything is fine' smile, small though it was.

Munro looked at her sceptically before drawing them both in,

"I'm glad you're safe, my girls, safe and sound," He whispered softly before putting them at arms length, "Go now, I've important business to discuss with Major Hayward."

Marie made to move but Alice thought it best to say something,

"Are you alright?"

Her 'father' smiled warmly,

"I'll be fine girl and so will you, now go. Go on, go on."

Alice nodded agreeably before turning away to follow Marie out, well aware that Major Hayward was watching them – Marie – leave.

Once the door was shut, Marie turned instantly, putting her ear to the door. Alice's shoulders dropped,

"What are you doing?" she demanded.

"Shsh," Marie replied irritably, "Listen."

Alice looked around carefully before reluctantly putting her ear to the door.

Hayward and Munro spoke a time on battle plans. Then they moved on to Magua and their adventures. Where the letter had gone. Who Magua was.

It appeared that Magua was enslaved at the hand of this father of theirs. Marie looked disgusted. He'd been done for drinking, sent to the Mohawks and forced to forget all that he was and that was the last Munro had heard of him.

"That explains the drink then..." Alice said thoughtfully.

"He was a slave!" Marie whispered angrily, "This country and slavery! You know Columbus Day is shit, right?"

"Marie, please!" Alice raised her hand to calm her fiery friend turned sister, "You don't have the right!"

"Enslaved. As a half-cast woman, I have many rights and opinions, thank you."

Alice gave up,

"What are we doing, Marie? What are you waiting to hear?"

"Whether there was a brief period where Hayward was not with us allowing this situation to occur."

"What do you mean?"

Marie let out a growl,

"Alice, shut up and listen!"

Alice scowled but did as she was bid. It finally came to light that Hayward had not left them the whole time. Marie, through each enlightenment, paled further. Until the final straw lead to Hayward revealing his affections for Cora/Marie and asking Munro for his blessing.

"If it please you, Sir," Duncan was saying carefully.

"Well it does!" Munro said with a hint of surprise, "But my Cora's not...well she's not..."

"She's half cast, Sir, I know but-"

"Why, Major?"

"I couldn't say, Sir," Hayward answered flatly sounding like he knew full well why but found the question awkward.

"Well, you're a good man, Hayward. Ask her, I don't suppose she'd take well to being told what she is to do. But," He sighed, "If the girl says no, ask her sister when the time is right. I know she has a fondness for you and it would suit me greatly to have you in my family."

Marie had wide, fearful eyes that broke into surprise at the revelation of Alice's supposed affections for Hayward. She locked her eyes on Alice who felt conflicted.

"What?" Marie asked, puzzled but Alice only shook her head, suddenly exhausted,

"I don't know."

Conflict. How was she going to deal with saying 'no' to Duncan and feign indifference towards Uncas when the time came around? If that was the way it was supposed to be, Alice felt she'd done the work of the woman she was supposed to be incorrectly.

She had heard enough. Pulling herself away from the door, she grabbed Marie's arm and dragged her away. She came easily, pealing from the frame like a page from a book.

She didn't let go of her friend's arm until they made it to the outside where the people danced in an orange light cast by a bonfire in a wide open space. Around it, broken people and families sat listening to a lonely fiddler.

Alice turned to Marie,

"We're not running, are we...?"

Marie swallowed, looked around and then shook her head nervously,

"No, it doesn't seem like we can."

"Explain what the hell you were doing there? Why are we stuck in this life? Where are the real people?" she demanded desperately.

"There's no one but us, Alice..." Marie told her softly, "That's what I wanted to make sure of. Duncan's been with us the whole time, you heard him."

"Impossible."

"There hasn't been a chance for a slip to happen! Wherever, whatever, we're stuck with these lives because they were actually ours."

"That's insane!" Alice put her hands on either side of her head as if containing combustion, "That's insane, we can't stay here!"

"Where do you propose we go then?" Marie asked calmly.

Alice shook her head,

"Anywhere," grabbing Marie's arms, "Stick to the plan. Run!"

"Run where? Home? Where's that?" Marie sighed and eased herself out of Alice's terrified grip, "Look; it's a strange hand we've been dealt but that's what we've got. We'll have to just play this thing out till the end, I suppose."

"Or until you remember what the hell kind of instructions you read with regards to this mess."

"Or that, yeah," Marie shrugged carelessly.

Alice felt her shoulders sag. She'd never felt so lost,

"What am I supposed to do with Duncan?"

"I've got to deal with him first so don't you worry," Marie snapped irritably, gazing into the heat of the fire, enticed by the warmth, "Say 'no'. Like me."

"And Uncas?"

Marie turned a raised eyebrow to her,

"What about him?"

"Well..." _I kind of like him...a lot, "_ His death and Chingachgook."

"We'll get there. You can have it your way and try to rescue him," she smiled, a thin lipped, broken grin, "In the meantime, I'll be with Nathaniel."

Alice felt a jolt of surprise,

"Say again? I thought-"

"Oh, Alice, we're stuck with these lives aren't we? Might as well fall in love."

Alice watched Marie walk away, drift even, into the light like a ghost. Lost in the sounds of the night. She was so graceful, Alice gawked, it was no wonder Marie attracted all kinds of men. She had fire but she had an exuberant amount of grace.

But freedom came in the form of misfortune, it seemed. Their situation was most definitely a mess but now there was nothing getting in the way of her accepting her growing closeness towards the young Mohican Chief.

If Marie had gone off to seek comfort in the white Frontiersman then she could seek her own comfort, no?

Uncas. Her heart jumped into her mouth. Uncas, Uncas, Uncas.

She looked around. But where to find him? Where to start?

Just as she turned around, the man himself followed by Nathaniel, was marching towards her with his musket in hand. His jaw was set and a furrowed brow made him look fierce. Suddenly Alice felt small and intimidated. She wished to be simultaneously missed and noticed.

She got the latter as Uncas locked eyes with her,

"Miss Alice," He greeted, the furrow easing slightly.

"Miss," Nathaniel smiled pausing in front of Alice where Uncas made to keep going. As a result, he stopped too.

"Your sister, where can I find her?"

Alice felt a shy grin creep over face,

"Not sure but she's looking for you too. Give it time."

Nathaniel seemed pleased by the news. Saying no more, he left her.

Uncas winked at her without a smile but his voice was soft when he spoke,

"Wait there, Alice..." He took a step before hesitating, "Please."

Alice looked at him, holding his gaze and for a brief moment she thought she saw his eyebrows contort ever so slightly – a hint of worry.

"I'll be here," she consented, crossing her hands at her waist. Uncas did no more to show pleasure or the lack thereof. He left her standing in the half light with nothing to do. She wondered how long she was supposed to wait. What she must look like simply standing alone in nobody's company. Far off, the fiddlers kept playing. She closed her eyes to the gentle tune, imagining another life. She wondered whether, were time to be a loop, if there'd always be a part of her that would be there waiting on Uncas' request.

He returned soon enough, drawing her out of the thought. He said nothing but the shadow that enveloped the otherwise dim red that was the fire on the other side of her eyelids.

Opening them, he was very close and she instinctively took a step away in surprise. So as not to offend, Alice gasped, apologised and then took a step forward again. Then she felt stupid. No longer able to fix it, she couldn't very well take a step back again. That would be ridiculous.

But Uncas opened up to her, appearing not to have noticed. She practically stepped into his arms. She lost faith in her confidence and her eyes dropped.

"Cosy..." She muttered sheepishly.

"My brother says we'll be leaving in the morning."

His voice was quiet, still unquestionably strong but quiet. Alice felt her heart sink to the pit of her stomach like a deflated balloon. The unexpected pain forced her to look up without being able to hide it,

"Well...where?"

"I don't know. Delaware, I guess. But he loves your sister. So maybe he won't," he said hopefully. The perceived hope was genuine as his expression slowly swayed from its usual stoicism.

She smiled, the sullen feeling relieved a while,

"I think she...likes him, at the very least."

Uncas laughed; a full, throaty laugh that moved his shoulders. She'd never seen him smile with a full set of teeth before. As it turned out, he didn't _have_ perfect teeth as she had expected. They were a bit crooked in some areas, the incisors were a bit too pointed and placed a bit higher into his gums than the rest of his teeth.

When he laughed, his lips pulled back quite dramatically to reveal all of this to her. It was an endearing, carefree smile that was infectious.

Her own smile was slightly crooked too, in its own way but she took great pride in the well-fare of her teeth. She'd endured braces as a child and she had no intention of enduring them again. So hers were pretty close to perfect. But she, like Uncas, hadn't had a chance to show it off in light of recent events.

Uncas could do with braces, though.

"Would..." Alice started, swaying slightly, "Would you like walk here and there with me?"

He shook his head. She frowned,

"Shall we sit?"

He shook his head, his smile having waned.

"No? OK."

He took her hands,

"My father has not stopped telling me how he recognises you from somewhere. Like a dream. He says he worries for me now more than ever. More than my brother," his seriousness slackened and a small smile tugged at the corner of his lips, "I think you scare him."

Alice swallowed, she'd forgotten time's warped sense of humour. Suddenly Uncas was precious and the thought that perhaps she needed to distance herself from him crossed her mind.

 _Your death is coming!_

She jumped into him. As if he were expecting it, his arms circled around her waist easily and his lips met hers even more so. It was damn near perfect until his incredibly sharp incisors did catch on her lower lip when he moved to kiss her more deeply.

She winced and pulled away,

"Ow!" said she dismayed, "What have you got in your mouth; knives?"

He didn't let go of her but he was confused. Gently, gently, she grinned. He imitated her and brought his face closer again, closer, closer still until the passion came pouring out in waves.

888888

Alice lay awake on her feather bed in the small, box of a room her father provided them. How long had it been since Uncas had kissed her? A minute? An hour?

After what seemed like an eternity, the door eased open and closed and the floor creaked under the feet on the intruder. There was a gentle him being sung under their breath. One Alice recognised; Marie.

Alice sat up and stalled. Marie's face was cast in shadow but she was glowing.

"Evening," she whispered in a slight dip of a curtsey.

Alice narrowed her eyes,

"Evening..."

"What?"

"Why don't you tell me?"

Marie's smile faded instantly and she became irritable,

"I kissed him and you kissed Uncas. Yeah, I know," she told Alice with mirth, "Uncas told Nathaniel so you're just as guilty as me."

Alice recoiled. She wasn't ashamed but she didn't want that information to be public knowledge just yet. Perhaps, given the times, she didn't want it at all.

"Oh..."

Seeing Alice's meek response, Marie came to sit by her side and gently rubbed her back,

"We've got other things to worry about, chicken. Nathaniel has told me that Duncan and he had a disagreement with regards to some chaos happening on the Frontier. That war party of ours isn't the only one. Men are demanding to go home to protect their families," she told Alice quietly, as if for of speaking too loud might bring about more trouble, "They're leaving tonight. Nathaniel's showing them the way."

Alice shook her head, puzzled,

"But Uncas never-"

"I don't think he knows, Alice. If word gets out, those men _and_ Nathaniel will get done for treason and for being deserters."

"Oh."

Marie nodded,

"Oh..." Then she took a breath and her smile came back, "Other than that, I had a brilliant evening amidst this crap."

Alice lay down again and exhaled loudly. Her heart aflame, her worries twice as heavy. She wondered whether God was real and proceeded to wonder about what the fuck he was doing.

"Alice?"

Alice didn't bother to answer. She closed her eyes and turned away in an effort to pretend to sleep.

She felt Marie linger a moment more before getting up, humming a tune that lulled Alice into a dreamless sleep. Still very much aware of her surroundings.

She woke abruptly when Duncan burst in, speaking fast and frantically,

"Cora, I really must –"

"Shshsh," Marie silenced him almost instantly, her tremulous hum replaced by annoyance.

Alice then proceeded to get up, catching Duncan's guilty eye,

"Alice, oh, I'm sorry..."

"Alice!" Marie pleaded, undoubtedly aware of what she now faced but Alice was tired on too many levels,

"Speak to him," she glanced back, "Cora."

She then looked to Duncan as she moved past him,

"I'm not an invalid school girl, I'll be alright."

She closed the door behind her perhaps a little too forcefully only to grow curious and peep through the keyhole.

Marie was staring disbelievingly at the door. 'Help!' written all over her face. Slowly her eyes moved from the door to the object of her uncertainty. Then Duncan moved to the side and blocked her view.

She left then. Dragging her weary feet down the hall and rounding a corner only to walk straight into Chingachgook.

"Ghost," He said, clutching her forearms, "Ghost Child."


	8. Chapter 8

**So I messed up. Oops. Alice did not run into herself. I honestly tried to find a way to incorporate that into the story somehow and make it all work but I couldn't find the way. I got confused. So that's been edited. Sozz for the anti-climax but thank you for you patience. The story continues.**

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Alice gaped at Chingachgook, the skin beneath his eyes beginning to sag as the lack of sleep began to catch him.

"I- I'm not a ghost!" Alice cried in dismay for Chingachgook's remark was so pointed it felt like a threat. Almost instantly though, he let go and she stumbled away. The hardness of his face slackened. He became an old man, wrinkled with the trials and tribulations life had given him.

"No, child," He answered kindly, "You're not. That's what has my mind on a wheel. I'm confused. We have met before, but when? Where?"

"I don't know," she told him a little too quickly. He chuckled, shaking his head disbelievingly,

"In that answer, girl, you tell me all. You know but you won't tell me. Why? You barely talk to me but you look at me almost as much as you do my son."

Alice felt herself blush, her eyes falling to the floor,

"Which one?"

Chingachgook laughed with a genuine haughtiness,

"Your spirit is as much as a challenge as your existence. Why does that make you shy? There's nothing to be ashamed of."

Alice was mortified and rubbed her arm in discomfort.

"Oh, Tatanka help me," He sighed, "My blessing is yours. Your siblings will be difficult. Magua, more so. But, I trust you to take care of my son besides, what can I do?"

He looked at her thoughtfully a moment, biting his lower lip,

"I dreamed you jumped after he fell from the mountain."

Alice looked up at him in bewilderment. It earned her a sad smile,

"Now I am left with questions. Will he die if you don't jump? Will _you_ die if you do? Am I dreaming of my son simply taking flight with a woman? My greatest dream now my nightmare. Or am I dreaming of a time ahead? A time, perhaps, which you have seen..."

Alice gawked at him, unable to fathom what was happening. He took a tentative step towards her,

"I don't want you to tell me your answer. Just..." He started drifting away, a sorrow in his wake that made the air heavy, "I want you to keep him safe as only a man's woman can."

Alice felt herself sag, the tension she felt slackening as she realised Chingachgook didn't seek answers but rather accepted that which he didn't and probably would never understand.

She nodded,

"I can only promise you my best, Sir..." She told him quietly and she meant it. She wanted him to know that. He seemed to understand that much. He nodded his consent and raised a hand to stroke her cheek, smiling with a hint of melancholia,

"My new child," He huffed a small chuckle, "I should have guessed. You're stronger than your sister. I don't think you know that."

She didn't but was enjoying the intimacy of the moment. The overwhelming sense of security Chingachgook gave off of his person, the pillar of strength. She wanted to hug him, the desire almost irrepressible but she forced it down.

"Now, where are you sneaking off too? My son is sound asleep so it must not be to see him. I must stop you there."

"Oh," Alice smiled shyly, "No, it wasn't. Uh...Hayward has decided to ask Ma-Cora to marry him."

"That will cause strife between my white son and that one," Chingachgook frowned, "That man has worked on my last nerve for a long time. But you left?"

"He'll ask me next when she says no."

"You know this?"

"I do," Alice confirmed, "My sister and I overheard him talking to my father. He wants Duncan in the family, I'm the alternative..."

Though it shouldn't have mattered, the thought of being plan B made Alice feel inadequate and close to a nothing person. It made her simultaneously angry and sad.

"You'll have to refuse him too, I think. My son has not chosen an alternative. Neither have you, I hope..."

Alice looked up at the man who now gazed back at her with a knowing glint in his eye, his head bowed just so to give the hint of there being only one right answer. Before she could respond, a click of a door opening and closing drew their attention away. Hurried but loud footsteps coming their way alerted them to Duncan's angry dejection.

"Come," Chingachgook whispered, "We go."

She followed him around the corner and as Duncan's steps drew nearer, Alice found herself all but running to keep up with Chingachgook's long strides until they burst out into the night with the bonfire burning ahead, wisps of smoke and sparks wafting up to the sky before disappearing into the darkness.

A commotion just over yonder the edge of the light, sounds and shouts of protests, grunts of pain – all irked Alice as Chingachgook began moving around the fire to find the sauce of the problem.

Once they'd cleared the glare, Nathaniel was thrown to the ground by British soldiers, his face hitting the ground hard as blood began to seep from his nose.

Chingachgook froze,

"What are they doing?" He said quietly, watching as his son had his hands tied tightly behind his back by two soldiers while others stood with their muskets at the ready, keeping the protesters – including Uncas – back.

"What are you doing?" The Old Indian said more loudly, approaching the commotion with a firm hand.

"Stand back, Sir!" one man said, turning his musket on him, "This man is under arrest for being a participant in an act of treason!"

"Is he treasonous?" Chingachgook asked the young man, just older than a boy. He straightened, his face reddening,

"In the Name of Her Majesty the Queen, yes, Sir."

"Because your men were met with empty promises!"

Alice found herself amidst a situation she knew not how to handle. She knew what was happening, obviously Chingachgook did too only she had no part to play in it. She could only watch.

"Stand down, Sir!" the boy threatened again as Chingachgook started towards them.

"Father! Let them take me!" Nathaniel pleaded, "The actions were my own!"

Uncas appeared then, jogging round to his father who didn't bat an eyelid for him, placing a steadying hand on the old man's chest, stilling him.

"Where will you take him?" Chingachgook asked despairingly as Nathaniel was hauled to his feet not without pain and guided past and away from them, "Hawkeye!"

He bellowed something in Mohican that only Uncas reacted too. He was otherwise ignored.

Angrily, Chingachgook took hold of his remaining son's forearm.

"Who has done this?"

Uncas' eyes darted between his father and Alice, taken aback by the rage he was suddenly faced with,

"Major Hayward."

Alice gasped audibly though she should have known. Chingachgook threw her a pained look before marching away, shoving Uncas' arm back, grumbling in his native tongue that resounded with worry and anger.

Alice was left staring and being stared at by Uncas. Before either of them could broach the subject, Marie came sailing out to them with her hair awry and a rage not unlike Chingachgook's in full swing,

"Where is he?! How dare he do that and then propose! How would he expect me to accept! DAMN him!"

"Calm down," Alice tried to say softly but Marie was in such a state she didn't seem to know her right foot from her left. Alice simply watched as Marie's fire slowly burned out until she was staring back at Alice in a breathless stupor.

"What now, Alice?" she asked wearily. Alice cast a nervous glance towards Uncas who looked calm as ever though he appeared to have a nervous reflex in his right hand. A fist that would come and go in irregular succession like a peculiar glitch. Apparently Uncas was hit by the unforeseen circumstances just as hard as the rest of them.

Alice felt her resolve slowly slipping from her grasp now that it was clear that absolutely nobody had any ideas as to what was happening...

It was horribly eye-opening to realise that, despite the knowledge and resourcefulness of the people who one trusts the most with their lives – in Alice's case, her existence, people get lost. Even the ones who are more privy to knowledge than most.

Despite the constant comfort Alice took in pretending that because she had lived this life twice so had the Mohicans, it had to be dismissed. They had not lived it twice. They lived in déjà vu. They had no control over what was happening, could not anticipate the future and learned from a past that had been seen once in passing. Life was life; charming, chaotic and unpredictable. In this time and the next.

When Alice came out of her musings, Marie had gone and Uncas stood in front of her. His worried gaze roaming over her face in concern.

"Where'd you go?" He asked her curiously.

Alice took a step back, shaking her head.

"I don't know..." instinctively, she raised a hand to Uncas' face and felt his cheekbone sharp beneath the skin.

8888

Things seemed to have fallen apart over night as the next morning, they were woken at the crack of dawn and told that they had little over an hour to pack up and leave the Fort.

The runner had been caught and the Colonel had been granted mercy and told to leave with his honour intact, the wounded taken care of and the dead said farewell too. The terms were fair, the defeat was graceful.

Alice and Marie found themselves propped up on a horse near the front of their enormous procession. Marie kept glancing back over her shoulder,

"Ugh...God, I can't see him!"

"Who?" Alice asked irritably.

"Nathaniel, who do you think, Alice?"

"He'll be with Uncas and Chingachgook, don't worry."

"I do worry," Marie sighed, looking at her with a certain aging sense becoming apparent, "I worry more now than I've ever done, Alice."

Alice turned back herself, trying to spot them but in the sea of faces, none of them were the ones she was looking for.

The morning wore on and on until morning turned to noon and noon to afternoon. Suddenly Marie jerked into alertness,

"Oh my God."

"What?" Alice asked cautiously, fearing the worst when Marie turned a horrified gaze towards her.

"1757!"

"Oh sweet mother- please don't-"

"A massacre! Montcalm allows Munro to leave. The British enter a valley where they get attacked by Indians in one of the most notorious incidents in the history of the French-Indian wars!"

"Marie-"

Just so, like a horror movie, the troops entered a clearing that was heavily wooded on either side of them with long grass for most of the way.

"Marie," Alice tried again, feeling her breathing becoming rapid as she began looking around in growing terror, "It'll be fine. We should tell-"

"Who, our father? Try and convince him of a premonition?"

"We can make up a story...we saw something in the woods."

"Alice, one of the terms of mercy was that Munro gave up his damn weaponry. That's why it was a massacre!" she hissed over her shoulder.

"Did Montcalm plan this?" Alice asked incredulously but Marie shook her head,

"Not in the history books."

A rustle in the woods, a disembodied whoop whistled in from the hills.

"Nathaniel!" Marie whispered frantically, glancing back before making a decision.

"Right. Alice, get off the horse."

"A horse would make for a faster escape!" Alice protested, silently disgusted at her own cowardice. Marie looked disgusted too, shaking her head,

"You'd surely go to hell for that! You know just as well as I do that you're not leaving Uncas anymore than I'm leaving Nathaniel. Besides!"

Alice hopped down from the horse in shame, knowing full well that Marie was correct. She looked up at Marie,

"Staying here was your stupid, bloody plan!"

Marie began to move hurriedly past the masses who seemed irritated by her presence. She stopped abruptly when Alice held her wrist fast and pulled her back,

"What about our apparent father? Nathaniel told you to stay close to him, didn't he?"

Marie stared at Marie, considering her words heavily, going so far as to take a step towards Munro's ever retreating form. Another whoop rang out and from behind them, someone screamed which caused a stir in the crowds. Munro looked back at them and looked confused but made no move to halt the procession or to enquire as to what it was. Alice wondered whether perhaps he thought he had imagined it.

"No, say goodbye, Alice. His end isn't one we should do anything about without changing history..."

"He dies?!" Alice started, halting Marie once more, "Marie!"

"Alice, for God's sake!"

She shook herself free from Alice's grasp and moved off as Alice bit her bottom lip, feeling a strange attachment to a man she barely knew, a father that wasn't truly hers.

Marie was gone, though. Alice was alone amidst a chaos that waited in the wings. Suddenly the woods came alive in a chorus of war cries and Alice was alone.

As terror gripped her, she froze. She shut her eyes and listened in horror as things began to go very wrong. People began to scream, shots and arrows sailed in from the darkness on either side. Panic took hold and rippled through the masses as violence exploded from the woodland edge.

People started running in all directions trying and failing to escape. When Alice turned to find the Colonel, he was no longer in sight.

With nothing to lose and instinct finally taking over, Alice bolted. She ran as best she could in her little white dress that was more of an undergarment than anything else. It clung to her body and restricted her movement.

Smoke and dust whirled into the air and Alice ran through the smog calling for her companion. Occasionally falling over a body that fell at her feet. Scalped men, women and children with stab wounds and cut throats and eyes open in shock but lifeless.

She gagged, the smell and sight of death was more appalling than anything she could have imagined.

"Marie!" she cracked as she fell to her knees once again, her lungs constricting against the smell of gunpowder and blood.

"Help!" she breathed, more to her frantic self than anyone else. She stuck close to the ground, deciding that the ground was a safer option. No one looked down in war time, anyway. She crawled on but regretted it. The ground was wet but she dared not find out white kind of wet. It had been a dewy morning but morning had gone.

She crawled past many a dead body, some scalped, others taking their last breath. Horrified, Alice crawled on to God knew where. Just away. She crawled with her eyes closed a while only to put her hand on a grimy something. Alice pulled her hand away with a yelp and brushed blood down her white dress smearing it in a crimson disaster.

She stood up abruptly, done with the ground.

Around her was carnage. Only screams and the smell of death and blood were immediately recognised – a foul thing. Then every once in a while, the smog would clear and Alice caught a glimpse of what was happening. A numbing chill ran down her spine and Alice found she was no longer able to comprehend what was happening.

Somewhere in the horror, Alice heard her name being called. It grew louder and more had a greater resemblance to a scream with each passing moment until Alice found her face being cupped gruffly, her cheeks forced to scrunch. Despite the roughness of it, the commanding turn of her head was gentle but the face she found herself looking at was not kind.

War paint, simultaneously fierce and beautiful covered a sharp featured and hard eyed Huron.

Alice might have said something but she no longer felt as if her existence was real. So she waited as the warrior raised his tomahawk, his eyes never leaving hers.

Then he was collided with and went tumbling down still clutching Alice's face. She was on her knees with Marie scrambling towards her,

"JESUS CHRIST!" she was screaming, completely thrown by her own actions, "Alice!"

She grabbed Alice by her hand and shouldered through a hoard of everything and nothing. Before them, Chingachgook arrived with his tomahawk out and dropping. Nathaniel was a close second, grabbing Marie furiously,

"What do you think you were doing?"

All the while, Marie was clutching Alice's hand with a grip as tight as a mothers hold. She said nothing. From behind, Uncas slipped his hand into Alice's and cupped her chin gently when she looked around.

"No time for this!" Chingachgook grabbed both his sons, then pointing at Nathaniel, "You will get no other chance beside this one!"

Nathaniel agreed, nodding at his brother who had let go of Alice and was now making headway without looking back. Chingachgook followed last, bringing up the rear with Alice stumbling along ahead. Marie kept turning back to look at her and Alice tried to appear calm and focused. In truth, her own breathing was thunder, her hearing had become hypersensitive and were Chingachgook not there to guide her, she would have strayed.

Through the fray they surged to where Uncas was launching canoes, low and behold, into the water with no one in them save for three.

Hayward had somehow appeared with a dishevelment such as only a soldier caught off guard could bare. One other soldier was with him and them two all but fell into the boat Uncas had ready for them, launching them aggressively.

"I'll have you hanged!" Duncan yelled as they set off while Nathaniel arrived to assist his brother. He ignored Hayward, waving him off without courtesy.

Nathaniel turned back to them, glancing at his brother,

"Get in!" He told Marie first and foremost, ushering her into the canoe while Uncas held it steady. Nathaniel then abandoned post and got the canoe ready to launch while Chingachgook guided Alice into the canoe Uncas continued to hold steady. He layed a hand on his son's shoulder, climbing in between Marie and Alice.

"Get in, brother, I'll do it!" Nathaniel called to Uncas who was bracing himself against the nose of the canoe. He nodded, climbing in in front of Alice, his knee brushing her fingers. Instinctively she closed her fingers around the remaining feel of him.

"Alice?" she heard Marie ask her from behind Chingachgook, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah." Apart from the obvious and apart from the fact that for the first time since having found herself here, she actually felt like a ghost – a memory.

She barely felt the canoe move as it glided into the Hudson. The drops from the paddle as Uncas drove it into the water and back out again caught Alice in her eyes and she blinked them away, slowly becoming aware that the amount of water being blinked from her eyes did not match the amount being put there in the first place.

From behind her, Marie screamed, Nathaniel yelled,

"Get down!"

Alice was pushed down from behind,

"Stay down, child," Chingachgook said more calmly, "Uncas!"

Alice didn't hear or see anything as to what father said to son but Uncas disappeared over the edge of the boat before she could think to find out.

He reappeared moments later just ahead of Duncan and his soldier's canoe, swimming tirelessly against the tide so that Duncan's canoe would reach him sooner.

A shot hit the water near his face and water exploded about him. Alice gasped, life flooding her veins at the prospect of Uncas having been shot. She lost sight of him behind the shattered water.

"Uncas!"

The water cleared and Alice realised she was looking at the wrong spot. Uncas had lost head way and had drifted down the river, further from Duncan.

Chingachgook cursed and Nathaniel called for Duncan to paddle harder,

"We're only two men!" Hayward protested, "One wounded, damn you!"

"Paddle faster for only a minute and you might not have that problem anymore, Major!" Nathaniel quipped easily.

"God, please shut up..." Marie said hoarsely with her head between her knees, "Just get us out of this."

Alice watched in agony as Uncas ploughed on against the current, enduring the shots fired at him, his luck hanging on by the skin of its teeth.

"Down, child," Chingachgook said again, pushing her down gently but Alice resisted,

"No! Uncas!"

"I know!"

Just then, water blew up in her face, the cutting shards of water dug into her skin and she screamed both from fright and pain.

Uncas stopped immediately and lost headway again as he searched for any harm that might have come to Alice. Eventually, having resumed his efforts, Duncan and Co. Managed to catch up with him and he was promptly hauled from the water into the canoe.

On they went, with Uncas' able bodied strength, Duncan's canoe surged forward with Uncas steering it from behind.

"We're goin' over the falls!" Nathaniel informed them all and the second canoe. Uncas responded but nobody knew what he said.

"Hold on, Miss Alice!" Chingachgook told her, grabbing her arm as a fall-back plan.

It was an easier ride than she had anticipated. A bit rough and tumble but the fall meant they outdid their pursuers, whoever they might have been.

Nathaniel pulled their boat over and all but pulled Alice and Marie out.

Alice stumbled into her friend's arms who gathered her up fiercely,

"Thank fuck for our lives..." She whispered into Alice's ear breathlessly. Alice said nothing, clutching Marie in an embrace meant for bears, her eyes screwed up tight and face buried into the crook of Marie's neck, trying desperately to block out the trauma.

In the blackness of memory, Marie pulled away from Alice. The cold that broke the warmth brought Alice too. The voices of Hayward and Nathaniel became apparent but Marie was gazing blankly at the boat before shifting it to the falls.

Alice didn't miss what Marie had spotted; a blood smear where it seemed someone had tried and failed to hold on.

She looked around and appeared not to find what she was looking for.

To Hayward, who had found her at last, she whispered hoarsely,

"You're missing someone..."

* * *

 **Hope it was worth the wait. The next chapter's on the go. I lost the rhythm for a while but I got this. See you on the flipsyd! Oh and don't forget to leave a review :)**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N** Sup, team. Sozz for the long wait in between chapters. I don't know why. But I'm starting to wrap things up here SO! Uhmm...yeah.

* * *

Duncan didn't answer immediately. He breathed deeply, staring at the smear. He glanced down in apparent shame before turning back to Marie.

"Yes, I- we lost him. He fell out the boat after getting shot. We tried to – Cora!"

But Marie had turned from him, wiping dust (or a tear) from her eye. No one made a move to touch her or console any misdeeds. Uncas was gazing at Alice who couldn't take her eyes from the evidence. Eventually she looked to the river in some vain attempt to spot the missing.

A firm hand wrapped around her arm, drawing her away from the water's edge.

"Come," Chingachgook said softly, "Quick, quick."

She obeyed with little resistance.

They hurried back up towards the waterfall in pursuit of Uncas who was leading the way. He guided them all into a cave that glimmered in the half light as the waterfall fell pristine and glossy over the opening. An enormous curtain.

Alice took Uncas' hand tentatively as he helped her down the slippery rocks into the main platform of the cave. Slightly sloped, a bit damp, a bit cold but it was as good a shelter as any.

Alice heard words thrown back and forth between all involved but she offered none to aid their situation. After all, she was nobody to give any kind of viable words of wisdom.

"It's soakin' wet!" Nathaniel yelled despairingly at his father who seemed just as much at a loss as his son as he cast his musket and bag on the ground and prepared to sit down.

Uncas put a hand on his father's shoulder but looked at his brother,

"I'll keep watch."

Chingachgook layed a hand on Uncas' before it was gone, Nathaniel having nodded his approval, dragging Marie away from the group while Duncan looked on, tired and upset.

Alice stood like a mannequin in the middle. Nothing to say, nothing to do.

She stood deathly still as a feeling of emptiness, such as she had never known, descended upon her. Everything seemed to desist until she was left with a dull thud in her temple. The lone thing she could focus on with the steady rhythm of a waltz. She imagined herself dancing to it in the cave, the dim half light acting as a dying spotlight. She'd never waltzed before – though there were a fair few she would never have minded dancing with. Maybe not a waltz but a dance of any kind.

Uncas, ironically, was not in that list of people. But no sooner had she found him in her thoughts than did her dull, thudding waltz come to a graceful end and only silence remained. It was a peaceful end.

She took a breath and found herself back in the thick of it. Chingachgook was gazing up at her, thoughtfully.

"Where did you go?"

She blinked herself out of the last of her thoughts. The cave was silent. Marie and Nathaniel sat in a huddle, looking out at the glistening sheath. Duncan had fallen into a restless sleep. How long had she been standing there for, she wondered.

"I was dancing..." She told Chingachgook finally, "To a waltz. Which...is confusing."

She frowned and Chingachgook mimicked her.

"I've never waltzed before..." She confessed with a sheepish shrug.

"A waltz," Chingachgook repeated, the word clearly new to his ears but he didn't ask what it was, "With my son?"

"No," she whispered wearily much to Chingachgook's apparent surprise, "No. I wouldn't dance a waltz with him."

"I wouldn't dance with him at all," Chingachgook jested half-heartedly.

Alice cracked the faintest of smiles but it was a foreign feeling now and it no longer felt like a natural occurrence...to smile.

Shaking her head, unable to rid herself of the dreamlike requiem, she turned from Chingachgook and headed back the way they came. Only vaguely aware that Chingachgook was watching her go, she followed the damp path back towards the exit, the way the light hit the shimmering water was hypnotic. Alice had the distinct ghostly feeling that it was the door way to the old life that would in fact be new.

If she walked straight through, no looking back, just so, she'd make it and if she didn't...

Well, what was there to lose?

With that in mind, the blood and screams fading into the fray, Alice felt like she was on her way.

One.

More.

Step.

"Get back!"

Step.

More.

One.

Alice felt herself being retrieved from the edge of oblivion. Her heart came back from the dead, the dull thud returning into a more discernible state of being – in time with a racing heart. She lost her footing and began to fall.

Entwined in Uncas' arms, they hit the ground causing her lungs to start grasping for air that felt thick and uncomfortable.

"Alice!" Uncas was saying, "What were you doing?"

Alice suddenly had to think, what was she doing?

"Dancing- no- uh..." what! Where was she going? "Ghosts!"

"What?" Uncas straightened. Taking her face, making her look at him, he demanded her attention, "Ghosts? Alice..."

"Ghost. Ghost, me. Uncas, I was dancing and then..." she sighed, her shoulders falling, "I don't belong here, Uncas."

Poor boy looked so lost that Alice felt ashamed of herself for even trying to express what was happening. So she kissed him, forcefully, fearfully and for a moment, a bit of life flooded her veins. Addictive. She kissed him again, pulling him to her though he tried to still her and that confused her just as he was confused _by_ her. Somewhere in her mind, she was aware of this being a mess but God knew she needed the life the feeling of Uncas gave her.

Before long, he had all but fallen on top of her, his lips everywhere in a fierce passion that scared the Jesus out of her.

 _Ghosts._

OoOoOo

"Alice get up, run!"

Alice was being shaken awake from a dreamless sleep, her body sore and stiff.

"Quickly, Alice!"

Uncas hauled her up before she had even fully awoken. Urging her onward, Alice stumbled forward in a peculiar hurry with Uncas' hand on the small of her back.

They burst into the opening where the others were and suddenly everyone was on their feet.

"What do we do now that your grand hide out has failed us?" Duncan asked snidely earning him a cool look from Nathaniel.

"Well, you'll have to forego the pleasure of hanging me, for one."

"Oh for God's sake! Here in the midst of Hell and you're still at each others throats!" Marie snapped, her face tinged and shining with dampness.

"And she's got the right of it, Major," Nathaniel told Duncan easily while the major looked distinctly taken aback by Marie's outburst.

Nathaniel suddenly looked flustered, trying to come up with a plan, constantly glancing at Marie who in turn glanced at Alice. Alice didn't know where to look, in her minds eye she could still see Uncas and his passion.

"The falls," Chingachgook offered quietly and all eyes were on him, "Leave the women."

"What did you say?" Hayward demanded angrily.

"Not if there's another way!" Nathaniel said stubbornly.

"You have another minute," Chingachgook told his son sternly but Nathaniel was at a loss. In less than a minute, he nodded his consent.

"You're mad!" Duncan cried, "Leave them here and they'll –"

"Uncas said Magua isn't with this war party," Nathaniel spoke over him, "They won't do a damned thing to them until they get to him."

"There are other things those people could do to them, Scout!" Duncan argued, "I will not leave them!"

"They wouldn't, Sir," Chingachgook told Duncan evenly, "They'll need them just as they are.."

"And believe it or not," Nathaniel added dryly, "Raping white women, to the Huron, isn't that appealing."

"And we won't have to find out, anyhow," Marie entered the discussion easily, "We're taking the leap with you."

Alice froze, staring wildly at Marie.

"No," Nathaniel told her.

"No," Chingachgook agreed, "Your dresses will weigh you down, Miss. There's no doubting your abilities but the river runs fast. We'll be hoping for the best ourselves."

"We can do it, Alice and I are strong swimmers!"

"Cora, you've missed the point," Nathaniel told her with a wry smile.

"I haven't! Why is our risk bigger than yours? We can do this! Alice, tell them!" Marie/Cora pleaded desperately.

"No fuckin way."

Alice ignored the wide eyed dismay her language brought on but she had no faith in her or Marie surviving the fall.

"Alice," Marie looked exasperated.

"It's a stupid plan, Marie...Cora, whoever you are," Alice told her bluntly, "We'll die and if not we then me."

Marie looked about ready to burst into tears. Her eyes brimming with desperate tears.

"Your sister speaks wisely," Chingachgook told her carefully. Marie cast him a disbelieving glance, clutching Nathaniel's arm.

"Nathaniel...Alice," She was glancing between them all in a final plea but Alice shook her head.

"If you wish to jump, then jump. But I'm not following."

This seemed to put an end to strenuous indecision. Marie, acknowledging Alice's resolve, conceded with a singular tear that rolled over her cheekbone before dropping off of it as she lowered her head.

Nathaniel stroked her cheek before drawing g her away from them and out of earshot.

Duncan turned to those of whom were left,

"I'll stay. Protect them as best I can."

No one objected and nothing more was said. Before long, Chingachgook had jumped through the curtain of water, his shadow dropping from them as if he had done what Alice imagined would happen to her were she to have taken the leap earlier.

Uncas, with little more than a glance, followed suit without looking back. Nathaniel took a little longer, taking Marie in for the last time as she sniffed away her disappointment at the circumstances.

Then they were alone. But soon danger crept in with the shadows on the walls. Duncan drew his cutlass and prepared for a fight. Marie turned back to Alice, giving one last longing glance at the fall behind them. Alice feared that Marie was going to jump anyway. Alice feared that were she to do so, that she herself would still not follow.

Terrifying though the thought was, Marie didn't do it and instead met their fate head on. The Huron braves poured into the opening with a savage ruthlessness that Hayward was never to face down.

Down within an instant, a mark like fire upon a bruising cheek and swollen lip, Hayward was pounced upon, subdued and stilled within moments.

Marie and Alice held onto each other. Alice had her stillness resume, not entirely due to a calm and level head, while Marie, ironically, trembled uncontrollably. Her skin was cold and her eyes were wide with fear. But it was Alice who was cloaked under her arms.

Alice then realised that the trembling fear was because it would be Marie who was going to endure the rapture first and possibly more violently, posing as the older more fiery sibling.

"Oh shit..." She whispered mere moments before she took a sharp slap to the face with the back of a bony hand. The impact tore her from Alice's side.

Alice froze, staring in fear as Marie tried and failed to struggle against her captors. Alice's hands were bound more gently for she met them with less resistance. Cora was on her knees, a bleeding lip and tears streaking a dirty face,

"Alice," she moaned, almost pleadingly, as Alice was lead away.

8888

Alice walked in a stupor, shoved when she wilted, dragged when she fell. Behind her, Marie was silent. Her words were costing her so she stopped talking, stopped asking questions.

Alice felt like she couldn't talk if she tried. Her ankles were in more pain than she'd ever known and yet despite that, she had the numbing memory of Uncas as he moved silently over her, around her, through her – it was neither good, nor bad but it was now the only thing that kept her on the ground otherwise she would float away. She'd fade.

 _And is that so bad?_ She mused to herself. God knew she would, literally, rather die. But the damn memory was in her head and Uncas was under her skin now. Was she under his?

After what seemed like a life time and a death of walking, a minute buzz of life started rising from a clearing at the foot of the cliff face. She hadn't even noticed the giant precipice as it loomed over head, dwarfing the land of New York below it. No less the Mohawk village that stood in its shadow.

Upon entering the village, a hush fell over its inhabitants and as they were ushered towards the chief who sat high above all others in a blanket wrapped around broad shoulders. His grey hair billowing wistfully in the breeze despite the dire malevolence of Alice and Marie being there.

His wise years showed on the old man's face and considered the women carefully as they approached. Even more so, narrowing his eyes in suspect curiosity when Magua stepped out from the crowd. Alice heard the first peep from Marie upon his arrival. It sounded like a small but ferocious growl. The sound of woman utterly finished with her foes.

Alice glanced back nervously but Marie granted her the peace of mind by not actually saying anything.

They were brought to stand next to each other at the feet of the Chief. A kind looking man who had no time for anger for he looked upon them with pity.

Marie gave Alice a furtive glance before searching for Hayward. He was bruised and battered with his coat gone, his shirt ripped. Hair dishevelled and a black eye. He had fought too hard.

Magua started talking abruptly and without introduction though it seemed the chief had expected him to talk. He listened with an attentive ear but didn't seem to be impressed by what the war chief, Magua, had to say.

Alice noted how sharply he moved, sharp gestures to fit a sharp face and eyes that were in a constant state of assessment.

When the chief did speak, he was dismissive of the young Huron. The scowl it elicited as a response was thunder.

"Alice..."

Alice turned a blank eye to her friend who did not return her gaze.

"We're actually going to die."

Alice shook her head decidedly but answered not, though she feared Marie was right.

"How is it that we are to die before Uncas-?"

"Alice!" Marie snapped softly, "Can you let that go for an instant? Please! We're here, Uncas is not. He's fine. We're not. Consider it a mission somewhat accomplished!"

Alice frowned, feeling something was out of place. She looked around but no one was there.

"Alice..."

Alice didn't look around instantly at the call of her name, despite the tremble in Marie's voice,

"What is i-"

Nathaniel was striding towards them, determined yet defenceless. He was slapped, pinched, cut and thrown to the ground in protest. He was a white man and therefore was subject to the tyranny they associated his skin colour with despite the stories about him.

Magua strode forward to meet him, equally as defenceless but more than ready to draw blood.

Hayward was beginning to grow restless but silent even as Nathaniel spoke.

"Take me!" He declared loud and steadily to the chief as the three prisoners looked on, "I am..."

Alice blanked. What Nathaniel was saying was lost on her even as Marie's breath grew strong, haggard and panicked. If Nathaniel was there, then Uncas and his father weren't far off and if her intuition was correct, the end of this madness wasn't either.

Struck by this revelation, she didn't even realise Nathaniel's pleas fail and yet Duncan, who had started having to translate for Nathaniel, was dragged off to a pyre.

Alice came bouldering back into reality when a roar of approval rose from the crowds and Marie began to scream whilst being dragged away.

"What the fuck is happening?!" she breathed to herself, a strong hand pulling her away too, when she saw Duncan's position and Nathaniel staring after them in frustrated despair before turning to run back to whence he came.

"Duncan! NATHANIEL! Do SOMETHING!" Marie was fighting, fighting hard with a reckless hopelessness that struck Alice dumb. Behind her, the gut-wrenching screams of a man in hell took to the air. She dared not look but Marie only grew more hysterical. It earned a few hard strikes before a gunshot silenced her. The war party didn't stop. Magua didn't even look around.

"What happened?" Alice asked fearfully. Marie's stolen and tear drenched face, eyes brighter than sunshine seemed relieved but devastated.

"The Major is dead, Alice..." She whimpered.

Magua didn't look around because Duncan would be dead regardless.

"And what's happening to us?"

Marie gazed at her disbelievingly as she was dragged backwards.

"Jesus, Alice..." She sniffed gravely, unable to wipe her nose.

"I'm worried about Uncas!"

"Again I say, let him die." Then she looked down, closing her eyes briefly, "Same as us."

"How do you know we die?" Alice challenged a little too loudly. She was hushed violently.

"What else do you think is going to happen?" Marie asked her evenly, sniffing again, holding back a sob, "Besides, I'd rather die anyway."

They had just conquered the steepest climb and were making their way onto a narrow path that had a meter between them and the cliff face and a meter between them and the killing fall.

Marie's head snapped up,

"Oh my God, that's it!"

"Uncas!" Alice's breath hitched, cutting off Marie's sudden epiphany.

"What the ff-" she turned, following Alice's line of site.

Uncas was fighting his way towards them from the front, his swift and agile body no match for the youngsters that challenged him. Slowly but surely, he was coming up against Magua who was awaiting him patiently on the ledge just ahead of them. Elevated ever so slightly, it would appear he stood upon a stage.

Marie turned to her abruptly, sensing Alice's inclination to intervene.

"Ok, Alice, listen to me! This is what needs to happen – you and I-" she told her do suddenly firmly, a resolve beyond Alice.

But Alice could no longer hold back her anguish against her captors while Uncas met Magua head on. The young Mohican tried to fight smart against the seasoned Huron but he had a lack of experience and he had grown tired. With each failed blow, it grew more apparent that the Mohican was going to lose.

This was _the_ moment.

Alice could not bear it.

"Alice, nO WAIT!"

She surged forward, yelling at Magua to stop only to hear a chilling screech from behind her.

Spinning on her heel to find out what it was, Alice found, to her horror, Marie with a knife in her gut, falling to her knees.

She had moved to follow Alice and had surged right up to the hilt of Huron's knife that had tried to stop them.

Alice spun around in hysteria to find Magua drive his sharpened, ugly knife into Uncas' gut, displaying his gruesome triumph for Alice to see while Marie groped for Alice's skirts.

Tears of utter darkness tumbled from her eyes, loss was inevitable but loss never kills you. Failure was the killer.

Uncas was not yet dead but what was there to do now? Marie was well on her way, her lifeless fingertips grazing the frayed edges of Alice's skirts, pleading to Alice for something.

In the simplest of words, Alice had fucked up and she was screaming. Screaming so loud she knew she would have no voice again.

In her recklessness and despair, Alice dove for Marie's neck. This time, the travel was chaos. A distant screaming. The weeks past coming back in vivid memories.

* * *

 **A/N** **Righto, excuse any mistakes. Be sure to leave a review. They are important and I do like them no matter what, even if what you say is not exactly "I love this!" as long as it goes a long the lines of constructive critique.  
Cool. Thanks. Bye.  
**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N So here's the end. I think I've finally got Uncas and Alice out of my system for a while. For a while.**

* * *

Alice landed on her feet in a haze. The screaming had stopped and it appeared that nothing was amiss. When Marie suddenly appeared beside her, gasping and horrified, only then did things come together once more.

They were climbing the cliff yet again, having only just left the Huron village. Magua leading the way with his knife and tomahawk tucked safely away but easily accessible in accordance with the impending chaos.

"Alice!" Marie gasped, clutching Alice's arm, trying to breathe, "What have you done?"

Alice was quite frankly amazed that her crazed decision worked in her favour (arguably) to land her in the right few minutes of the past.

She grabbed Marie's hand, overcome with relief,

"You're alive! It worked!"

"Alice, li-listen, I remember how it works. We have-" She stalled, breathing deeply, her body countering an obscure trauma, "We have to die!"

"What?" Alice instantly let go of Marie and stepped away. Marie almost fell over as Alice was pushed forward without her.

"No, I-" she stammered, "I don't understand. What about Uncas?"

"As I said, you can't change history. If I died just now-" A deep, uncompromising breath, "-then that's inevitably how I go. Same goes-ow!- for Uncas."

"That can't be true! I have to-"

"Alice! Dying will send us home! I was right there…I could touch it." Marie then ran out of breath. Her eyes pleading.

"But..." Alice whimpered, "Chingachgook..."

Marie didn't bother with a response choosing to let Alice figure it out on her own.  
"I tried so hard..." Alice mused again, no longer feeling as if she were on solid ground. She had literally come to die. No more, no less.

"Alice?" Marie asked softly, still clutching her gut, "I can't endure that again. Please...please don't _make_ me endure that again."

Something in the way Marie closed her eyes and didn't look at Alice while pleading for her 'life' made Alice's resolve shake in its boots. Time was too complex for her. For _anybody._ Everything appeared to be interlinked, no matter what she did, it had effects on everything and if not on everything then everything else.

The moment was fast approaching. Two deaths were imminent. But what of her? She knew nothing of her own demise unless she chose too?  
Alice had a fleeting memory of her moments before Uncas pulled her away from the falls the night before. Away into his arms. Away from a fate she thought suited her best – a thoughtless jump.

Ahead, the catastrophe had begun to unfold. Uncas was fighting his way towards them with the same fierce determination as before that was losing its ferocity with each blow he gave.

Magua moved from them on cue, taking his place on that little stage of a cliff face. He had armed himself - just as before, his knife bobbing in accordance with his defensive stance.

It was devastatingly obvious how inferior Uncas was as a warrior (despite his skill) in comparison to Magua. The older man looked calmer and more ready. Wisened by many more years of warfare.

Alice felt her tears welling up, the vision before her becoming blurred. She took one instinctive step forward but remembered Marie.

When she turned, Marie had no words to offer. She seemed to have accepted her end now, harrowing though it was.

Soon a blood-curdling scream erupted and was followed by a thin, metallic slide. When Alice turned in horror – it all happened again.

She surged forward,

"Uncas!"

Then Marie's screech halted her dead on so that she almost fell over her skirts. Marie was on her knees and at the feet of a shocked Huron, the knife still protruding from her gut. Just. As. Before.

Alice made for Marie but backed away in a hurry when all arms but Marie's reached for her. Marie was dead before her eyes a second time. The necklace crumpled into the crook of her neck and was suddenly nothing more than that.

Uncas! She spun on her heel, deciding that Uncas was all there was left. There was still time. She started running before she was even fully turned around but she was yanked back rather suddenly. Her wrist was caught in a hold of iron.

"No!" was all the Huron told her and not unkindly. Only firmly, steering her away from harm and back to her dead friend.

"Alice!"

Alice turned in despair, catching Uncas' desperately apologetic eye before Magua did the final deed, pausing in a brief moment of lethargic recognition. Uncas gasped in a horrid way before simply tumbling over the edge. Magua watching him without as much as a shove.

"NO!" Alice screamed so loudly her voice cracked, "NO! NO NO NO!"

 _Again! I can do this!_

She dropped to her knees, yanking the necklace from Marie in wild hysteria.

"Girl!" someone yelled angrily before a complete and desolate darkness consumed her. It lasted so long she feared she'd never get out. She was whole but in darkness. Darkness though she swore her eyes were open.

Then she awoke, the blinding light making her fall without pause. Crawling to her feet she searched for Marie who was just ahead, gulping hard as if she were a fish out of the water. When she turned to Alice, her eyes were red and blood shot, the veins all but popping out.

It only took a moment for Alice to realise that this time, time had placed her mere minutes before everything unfolded for a third time.  
Magua was already poised on the cliff edge with Uncas stalking towards him.  
Alice was about to move without thought, choosing to just rush it – throwing everything off course if it meant that Uncas could just escape without having to go through Magua.

She knew the backlash was inevitably going to cause her a lot of guilt, but Marie was her second choice now and she knew it as she stared at Alice clutching a wound that had yet to appear. She was crying already, a steady pain apparent on her face and in her eyes. Her soul looked as if it was on its knees.

Ahead, a Huron turned with a thoughtful look on his face and gazed at Alice a short while before saying something in his native tongue. No sooner had he finished his sentence than did another strong hand take hold of her wrist.

Alice gasped in terror at the contact, her eyes meeting hard and relentless eyes that held no hope of letting her go any time soon.

A familiar cry of pain made its way to her ears and she turned to face it in slow horror. Marie was on the ground, this time her death seemed slower. She lingered on her knees a moment longer, clawing at the chest of the man who killed her. The man who looked shocked at his own actions as he always did and yet – like so many others – aware that he had somehow committed this same action before but without understanding as to how it was possible.

Then Mare simply toppled over, her last power of will was to tear the necklace from her throat and toss it over the edge.  
Alice watched it go in a numb anguish. Reality was shutting down around her. She had nothing and soon the memory of the night before, Uncas making love to her, was back as a saving grace. It kept her safe somehow. Something to hold onto for she had lost. Chingachgook was never going to know how all this had come to pass.

She managed to look at Uncas as he looked at her. He didn't call her name.  
Alice forced herself to watch him die, desperately prying her wrist out of the grasp that held her in place.  
With that, Uncas died.

Alice went devoid of all emotions. She was floating above that now. She watched as Magua wiped his knife clear of Uncas' blood with a loincloth that was impossibly clean despite his bloodied hands.  
Alice felt herself moving, floating even, towards the oblivion she felt was waiting for her. Back, again, in that strange stupor of a moment where she felt that if she jumped, she'd simply disappear into the fray and come out the other side, untouched and alive.

She knew, after hearing what Marie had told her, that her instincts were right. She turned her gaze to the ghost of New York. Where the city was surely to be, was an endless canopy of life and beauty instead.

A beauty that could kill you. Ethereal in its splendour.  
The fall wasn't so far down when she looked but it would certainly kill her. Somewhere below she could see the blob, barely discernible, where Uncas had landed.

 _Just jump, Alice. You do have a choice. There is no karma. There is no backlash. Simply yesterday, today, tomorrow._

When she turned back to consider Magua one last time, she found him already looking curiously at her. He seemed taken with her, as if he didn't quite understand what it was he was looking at and as a result he reached for her. Lowering the threat of his knife to offer her his hand instead. He gestured for her to come back to him, a strange promise of safety in his wiry arms.

 _Jump, Alice._

She didn't jump.

She did step, though, and elegantly.

OooOoooOoooO

"Alice…"

Darkness.

"Aaaalice."

Alice felt herself stir, feeling creeping back into her body starting with her fingers. An awareness of her own heartbeat and steady breathing brought her slowly round to the feel of a soft breeze on her face. Her cheek felt scrunched and was beginning to her hurt where her bone rested on a hard surface.

"Wake up, Alice, God dammit!"

Alice blinked and rose almost without hesitation at the authority of the demand. Her skin peeled from the surface with a sticky saliva that had glued the corner of her mouth to the table.

"Marie?"

"No, Dolly Parton, actually."

Alice frowned, unsure of what she had experienced was a dream or not. Marie seemed so unchanged and so unaffected with her face resting in the palm of her hand as if she were bored.

"Where are we?"

"Look around." Marie gestured to their surroundings – the cafeteria as it was when they disappeared. Clean and clinically white.

"Right where we started," Marie finished dryly.

Alice dropped her hands into her lap and sat awkwardly while Marie considered her with a quiet curiosity.

"I'm sorry," Alice said softly without meeting her eyes, "I-…yeah."

Marie took a deep breath, shrugging,

"Yeah."

"Are you alright?" Alice enquired tentatively, unable to keep her eyes from Marie's waist.

"I think so." Marie rubbed her belly, "I've got this weird throbbing – it doesn't go away. Like my insides are trying to realign themselves? It's an odd feeling."

"I tried, Marie." Alice felt the tears coming – slowly, they fell, tear by tear rolling down her cheeks, "I tried so hard."

Marie didn't move to comfort her. She watched Alice dissolve into herself, hiding her face in her hands. Deeply ashamed by her actions and lack of result.

Marie watched her cry for what felt like a life time. When Alice looked up, seeking some kind of reprieve for her torment, she found Marie nodding at her in some kind of silent acknowledgment.

Alice understood that Marie was hurt by her decisions in their adventure and she had every right to be. Alice couldn't imagine the pain she'd put her friend through to rescue a man who was destined to die. She knew she'd be haunted by Marie's expression in her last attempt; her eyes and their red horror.

"It's alright, Alice," she told her finally.

"Is it?"

Marie didn't answer her immediately, looking at her in the eye for a long while – deciding upon the truth.

"It will be."

She got up, wincing slightly as she did so, slinging her bag over her shoulder. She was about to walk away when she paused, feeling her jean pocket and pulling out a horribly familiar site from within and dropping it onto the table.

"I can't get rid of the damn thing. I thought I was done with it when I chucked it over the Goddamn cliff. But no." She scowled at it, "You can have it."

"Marie-"

"I don't want to see it again."

"Marie, I'm sorry about Nathaniel too…"

Marie stalled a second time but didn't answer. She walked away with a finality that told Alice that they wouldn't be addressing this part of their friendship again. It would be a stain in their lives. It would never be forgotten but they would never endeavour to revisit it. Mistakes were made that were hard to forgive. Alice wasn't sure whether she'd ever be truly forgiven.

She resolved to throw the necklace in the fire when she got the chance.

She collected her stuff with a lethargy she wouldn't shake for the rest of the day. She wasn't going to study. She was going home, dammit.

When she left the cafeteria and stepped into the sun, it was as if to do so for the first time. She blinked into the blinding rays, closing her eyes to feel the warmth.

When she opened them, she had to blink back her surprise when she found Marie talking to a tall, very striking and very familiar man.  
Marie caught Alice's eye and spared a small, if not an ironic, smile before returning her attention to the man at hand.

Alice wiped away a stray tear and began an odd walk home.

She turned an empty corner and stumbled to her knees after having tripped over a crevice in the paving. Too tired, too utterly finished, she began to cry.

"Miss?" A deep, baritone voice the washed over her like water.

Alice wiped a desolate, desperate tear away from her face and tried to get up in a hurry, embarrassed by the company.

"Yes, I'm fine. I'm fine – don't touch me – I'm-"

When Alice finally looked upon the young man's face, she almost fainted.

"Miss?" he asked again, concern etched on his fine features, "Are you sure you're alright?"

Alice paused, looking at Uncas in dumbstruck awe.

"I- I am, yes."

She felt herself begin to smile; a broad, stupid smile that seemed to be reciprocated albeit slightly more puzzled on her companion's face.

"Are you?" She asked him and instantly felt stupid at the question, remembering that he hadn't experienced the same chaos as she. But he obliged, shrugging,

"I felt a little odd this morning…" he frowned, straining to find words before giving up and looking at Alice thoughtfully, "But I know your face. Can't quite place how but we've met before, haven't we?"

Alice nodded slowly, feeling relief flood her bones, her soul slowly rising to its feet,

"Probably."

* * *

 **Don't forget to leave a review. Again, I've re-written this ending a few times. Hope it works.  
Also, I think what happens is when I get too excited, I think faster than I can write and then I get way ahead of myself and everyone else is like "WHAT THE FUUU Is GOING ON!"** **But yeah. Review!  
And thanks for the support. This community is cool :)**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N** I recognise the fact that I never gave Chingachgook any closure despite the story having revolved around his reaction.

So here's a quick fix that.

* * *

He's fine.

The End.

No I joke. OK, here you go.

* * *

Chingachgook sat back in his chair with the newspaper inches from his nose and a coffee on the table beside him.

"I keep telling him he should get glasses but he insists nothing's wrong with his eyes."

Chingachgook rolled his eyes,

"Despite what you believe, boy, I see everything. Even you sneaking out at night to do whatever it is you do."

Silence met his remark. A victorious smile in place, he began to lower his paper,

"So I assume it's a girl. Am I about to meet –"

Blonde, timid and beautiful. He had had many dreams about his son falling to his death. A psychiatrist friend who had a particular interest in dreams and their meanings had told him that these were wonderful. It meant his son was growing up. Chingachgook didn't quite agree.

But Chingachgook never mentioned the fact that there was a young woman involved in it all. She would try to rescue him time and time again before following him. It would always end the same way.

Now here this woman was. Looking just as perplexed as he felt.

"Yeah…" Sean said tentatively, "Dad, this is Alice."

"I've got him!" this Alice child suddenly blurted out, surprising Chingachgook even further, "I – he's safe."

Chingachgook became aware that she was just as dumbfounded by him as he was by her, that she knew or had seen him before just as he had her.

Her statement alone, as if having read his mind, was enough to have him believe that they had crossed paths before.

"You do," he rose steadily from his seat, "Yes…he is indeed. Hello Alice."

"Hello."

Sean cocked his head and narrowed his eyes in puzzlement. He took Alice's hand.

"This is my father, Chingachgook…" leading her away from Chingachgook, he muttered under his breath to her, "Have I missed something?"

He didn't hear the girl's response as he was left to brood over what had just occurred.

And brood he did. He went over his dreams, he went over his thoughts, he glanced towards the room from which he heard their voices drifting. He crossed his arms.

"Alice…" he said aloud, "Alice, Alice, Alice…"

It felt like 5 minutes but apparently it was two hours when the two reappeared.

"Dad, I'm just going to drop Alice at home. I'll see you later."

"Drive safe," he said without thinking until Alice crossed his line of sight again. He sat up straight.

"Bye, Sir…" she said.

"Goodbye, Alice. It was good to meet you. Brief though it may have been."

She smiled, glanced down before answering him.

"And you. Uhmm…" she looked over at his son, just out of Chingachgook's view, then looked back at him – a firm look in her eyes, "I'll keep him safe."

Chingachgook cocked his head which seemed to deter her slightly. She blushed and shifted uncomfortably,

"I…just thought I'd tell you. You know, driving safe and all, I can – I'll keep an eye out and –"

"Keep him safe." Chingachgook smiled warmly.

She nodded and left.

When Sean came back, he took a seat opposite his father and beamed at him, his eyes bright.

"I like her, dad," he said with subdued passion.

Chingachgook smiled, putting down his paper once more,

"I know you do."

"Yeah." He folded his hands, thinking about his revelation before his expression grew puzzled again and he looked up, "What happened back there?"

"Back where?"

"When you first met Alice. Have you two met before?"

"Oh no." Chingachgook chuckled, "No…But Sean Uncas, you stick to that girl. You stick close."

His son nodded slowly, giving his father an obscure look,

"…No problem…"

They looked at each other for a long while before Sean rose and considered his father curiously before trudging up the stairs behind Chingachgook to his room.

"Alice…." Chingachgook said again with a smile, getting an easy feeling of familiarity. He'd see her again. He felt he'd be seeing her more and more, maybe every day until the day he died.

Ah…yes. Not so bad. His son was in good hands.


End file.
